$5999each $719DOZEN EACH DOZEN

$5999each $719DOZEN EACH DOZEN

The Giant Steps team pointedly sourced several conspicuous clones of Chardonnay from California, Burgundy and Champagne, to be established on the coolest, lowest slopes of the superlative Sexton property. Vine vigor and yields are naturally low, encouraging a low intervention approach to hand managed viticulture. The crisp, cool ripening conditions and flinty, almost mean soils of Yarra Valley's temperate slopes yield a vibrant style of Chardonnay in the nectarine, citrus, melon and white peach range of flavours.

$6499each $779DOZEN EACH DOZEN Chardonnay clones Mendoza and 227, 96 and 78 and 85 are all hand picked, sorted and chilled, parcels of whole bunches and destemmed fruit are treated to three days of cold soak at 10C. Batches are sulphured before a wild indigenous yeast vinification in oak vats and small, square open fermenters for a fortnight. A course of minimal drain returns and light plunges are employed for optimal extraction. Upon completion, ferments are gravity transferred through an airbag press, racked off gross lees to a selection of French Burgundy coopered 500L oak puncheons and 225L oak barriques for a term of age, followed by assemblage into the finished wine and bottling without filtration.

Pale golden hue. Fresh cream bouquet, white peaches and nectarine, river stones and spearmint, curry leaf and muesli. Lush with beautiful chalkiness, great approach, crisp and punchy acidity. Granny Smith skins, green mango and arrowroot biscuit. A very good balance of fruit within a rich, complex wine of great linearity and driving length, drinking brilliantly on release.

$14099each $1689DOZEN EACH DOZEN

$5699each $683DOZEN EACH DOZEN

From the highest plantings in all Yarra Valley, Wombat Creek was established in the 1990s, with a view to assembling choice blocks Chardonnay and Pinot Noir into a premier Victorian sparkler. The quality of fruit however, now merits bottling as a superior growth in the Burgundian style. A rich, gorgeously proportioned Chardonnay, fully fleshed and exquisitely balanced, opulent with the boldness of grapefruit and butternut, complexed by the oyster shell and flint characters of a magnificently loqacious terroir, made to match alongside a sizzling sauté of frogs leg, chanterelles and snail.

$6099each $731DOZEN EACH DOZEN

Assembled from a tally of the most illustrious Yarra Valley sites, Sexton Vineyard, Tarraford and Gruyere Farm, Applejack and Wombat Creek. Gingerly hand picked for whole bunch pressing and wild yeast ferments in 500 litres French oak puncheons, achieving a fully animate Chardonnay style, redolent of citrus and melon, creamy yet crystalline, offering a palate and breadth of exceptional balance and poise. Giant Steps are meticulous in all things Chardonnay, retaining the vitality of fruit from within the vineyard and encouraging the eloquence of each site as it speaks from the glass.

$3699each $443DOZEN EACH DOZEN

$2999each $359DOZEN EACH DOZEN

$2999each $359DOZEN EACH DOZEN

A compelling experience in Chardonnay, crafted by a team of winemakers and viticulturalists who eschew the bland direction and market dominance, increasingly exerted by the oligopoly of corporate players. In a nutshell, they see themselves as innocent bystanders. A collation of Yarra valley harvests from the Primavera, Shaws Road and Tarraford sites, assembled around a core of splendid fruit from the distinguished Sexton estate vineyard on the Warramate Ranges at Coldstream.

$2399each $287DOZEN EACH DOZEN Yarra Valley has been producing distinctive and elegant Charadonnay wines since early settlement. On the higher, leaner soils of Sexton, vine roots explore deep and grapes ripen steadily, naturally checking their vigour. A close husbanding and intensive maintenance is essential to yield the most intensely flavoured grapes. Fruit is all picked and pressed as whole bunches, chilled and transferred to seasoned and new French oak barriques and puncheons. Indigenous yeasts and small amounts of cultured yeasts initiate ferments, barrels are treated to a regimen of lees stirring battonage over the course of nine months maturation.

Bright, light straw colour. Nose displaying lemon zest and cashew, white peach blossoms and river stones. Granny smith and grapefruit flavours, kernel and cashews, bright crunchy acidity, the savouryness of chicken stock. Oily lemon pith, lime zests and biscuit, before a lingering finish of viscous minerality. To accompany Sunday chicken, Moreton Bay bugs or freshly rolled pasta with basil.

A new wave and the next big thing? Been around forever actually. Great Pinot Gris can only come from fine vineyards. There are two distinctive styles in Australia, zippy with lemon freshness and crisp acidity or the richer, textural, full bodied type. Both share an attractive mineral element that adds complexity. For all you anything but chardonnay drinkers, here's a generously flavoured white, derived from red coloured grapes, crisp and refined, born and bred for food, goes great with charcouterie, fresh seafoods or highly spiced cuisine.

$2299each $275DOZEN EACH DOZEN At its best, Pinot Gris it is like a fingerprint, inextricably linking the personality and mood of the land from which it has sprung. Innocent Bystander comes from the upper Yarra, where cool summer temperatures lead to fresh crunchy acidity and great aromatics. Due to the higher altitude of sites, fruit is harvested later in the season. Grapes are completely hand picked and whole bunch pressed, free runs are separated and batches are treated principally to wild yeast with some interesting Alsace isolates for complexity. Half are sent to fermenters and vinified at lower than 17ËšC, the balance is filled to seasoned French oak barrels and vinified at 20ËšC to 24ËšC, followed by assemblage and early bottling.

Medium straw hue. Honeysuckle, preserved ginger and cardamon nose, pithy lemons and grapefruit skin, freshly cut white pears and a hint of white joobs. Like fresh rain on beach rocks. Crisp like biting into a fresh green apple. Tight with a melting acidity that lingers like cottage lemonade. A really lively palate with a solid flick of crisp citrus. It will become your best table mate, sublime with sashimi or goat's curd bruchetta.

Yering Station can boast of a long and mutually propitious association with Chardonnay, its rootstock has been called upon to establish many Victorian vineyards. An entry level into the noble house of Yering Station, nothing is ever done in half measures here, the vines are all fully mature and many of the grapes for Little Yering are picked by hand, the finished wine is aged exclusively in French oak. Fashioned to the enduring fruit forward Yarra Valley style, a well proportioned Chardonnay offering refined bouquets, intense flavours and lingering concentration.

$2099each $251DOZEN EACH DOZEN Yering Station can trace it's viticultural heritage back to the 1850s when Paul de Castella established Victoria's first vineyard with cuttings from France. Chardonnay clones P58 and I10V3, 86 and 96 are harvested, much of it by hand, from mature vines up to fourteen years of age, grown to choice Yarra Valley sites. Fruit is sent to a mix of fermenters and oak barrels with little or no skin contact time to reduce phenolics, inoculated to yeast type CY3079 and treated to slow, cool vinification over a term of two or three weeks. Fermented to dry, the wine completes it's course and ages nine months in a selection of well seasoned 228 litres and 500 litres French oak barrels.

Pale straw hue. Great intensity on the bouquet, showing mineral notes, white nectarine and citrus flavours. The palate exhibits a creamy, nutty complexity, freshness and elegance. Medium weight with clean citrus fruit supported by well integrated French oak and balanced acidity, offering great structure and length to the finish, Little Yering is a sound cool climate Chardonnay to accompany dory fillets or goat cheese recipes.