2025 Giant Steps Bastard Hill Chardonnay, Yarra Valley

Limit 3 per person

Planted in '87 in Gladysdale at 400m. This vineyard gets picked a full month after Tarraford and Sexton! This is the third and best wine Giant Steps has made from this cool site. A very bright green gold. Penetrating aromas of crushed rock, nashi pear, ruby grapefruit and orange blossom. It's pure and precise on the palate, with a saline acid line giving the wine structure and length. A special wine that will age effortlessly over the next decade.

98 points Special Value Philip Rich, Halliday Wine Companion

Bastard Hill is one of the most exciting chapters in the modern Giant Steps story. High in the Upper Yarra near Gladysdale, the vineyard earned its wonderfully blunt name because farming its steep slopes is no easy business. Giant Steps took custodianship of this celebrated site in 2022, and for winemaker Melanie Chester it provides extraordinary raw material for Chardonnay: altitude, cool temperatures and a long growing season delivering intensity without heaviness.

Planted at roughly 300 to 400 metres elevation, Bastard Hill is considerably cooler than the central Yarra floor. Its steep slopes, volcanic influenced soils and exposure slow ripening and preserve acidity, giving the Chardonnay a tauter, more mineral personality. The 2025 release captures that beautifully, combining concentrated fruit with the tension and structure that have quickly made Bastard Hill one of the most coveted wines in the Giant Steps collection.

Pale straw with a green edge, the bouquet is wonderfully detailed: white peach, lemon zest and grapefruit mingle with jasmine, green almond and a touch of struck flint. As it opens, there are hints of nectarine, citrus oil, sourdough and cool stone. The palate has terrific shape, beginning tightly wound before gradually expanding with white stone fruit and lemon curd. Fine acidity runs through the wine, while restrained oak contributes hazelnut and gentle toast. The finish is long and saline, leaving citrus, flint and almond in its wake.

Give it Hokkaido scallops with yuzu butter, steamed coral trout with ginger and spring onion, Moreton Bay bugs with garlic butter, chicken with morels or tempura zucchini flowers with sea salt. Our pick is the coral trout. That delicate sweetness and ginger against the wine’s citrus, mineral line and creamy texture should be magnificent.

Cellaring: Drink from 2028 to 2042.