The next step on my tour through the Yarra Valley that Steve from De Bortoli had organised for me was the brand-spanking-new ‘Giant Steps’ winery. I was led along the catwalk from the offices to the winery, that passes above the cellar door/restaurant below – the similarity between this and the ‘Little Creatures’ brewery I’d visited in Fremantle was striking – when I mentioned this to Steve Flamsteed – the winemaker at Giant Steps, it came as no surprise, as it was set up by one of the same guys behind Little Creatures, Phil Sexton. Phil also set up the Margaret River winery ‘Devil’s Lair’ before going on to set up the Little Creatures brewery and now Giant Steps. Unusually for a winery, Giant Steps is right in town – but with the open-plan design and kitchen taking up almost half of the building, it is fast becoming one of the main attractions in Healesville. The winery is state-of-the-art, with a built in crane structure allowing fermenters an tanks to be hoisted around with ease, as well as the cooling cellar – essentially the largest fridge I’ve ever seen! Although it can be temperature controlled to perform various tasks during the winemaking process – from providing cold storage for un-crushed grapes, to being a warm room to aid tricky ferments. 

After looking round the winery with Steve, we wandered through to the cellar door area, which as well as selling food and wine, has a coffee roaster, in fact when you arrive at Giant steps, you are welcomed by the fresh-roast coffee smells as the extractor from the roaster blows out onto the car park. Steve had another meeting, so for the tasting I was in the capable hands of Emmanuelle. We started off by comparing the three most recent vintages of the Sexton vineyard Chardonnay – there is not generally as much vintage variation in Australia as there is in the classic European wine regions, but up here in the Yarra Valley, the climate is cooler, more marginal for grape ripening, so vintage variation can be more pronounced than in the warmer, more reliable climates found in many other Australian wine regions. I preffered the 2003 and 2005 which seemed to be richer than the 2004, both having integrated oak and ripe fruit, the 2005 seeming more fresh tropical fruit over the 2003 which had more peach and dried apricot flavours. From the Tarraford vineyard, slightly further North, the 2006 Tarraford Chardonnay was even more serious, with a combination of creamy texture and balanced acidity – the more expensive one in the range though of course. 

The winery is also home to the ‘Innocent bystander’ range of wines, more affordable and not exclusively from single vineyard sites like the Giant Steps wines. The wine that really seems to be the buzz-wine for Summer, is their Moscato – a light, sweet but refreshing style which is sold both in regular wine bottles and in half bottles sealed with a crown cap – over Christmas at Kemenys I was asked for the Innocent bystander fizzy pink moscato a number of times…

The top of the tree at Giant Steps is the ‘Harry’s Monster’ (Harry is Phil Sexton’s 11 year old son – and designed the label!) The 2005 is a rich Bordeaux style blend, with some nice chocolatey weight, (not as much as the Cape blends from South Africa though) and complexity ending with a nice creamy character.