2025 Giant Steps Sexton Pinot Noir, Yarra Valley

From the Sexton vineyard in Gruyere planted in the late '90s. 100% destemmed, 22% new wood. More black fruits than red fruits, stewed rhubarb, a little earth and iodine, too. This follows through onto the darkly fruited, compact and firmly structured palate. The most closed of the four single-vineyard wines today but one that will reward at least a decade, or more, in your cellar.

96 points Philip Rich, Halliady Wine Companion

Sexton Vineyard is the home ground of Giant Steps, planted across the steep slopes of the Warramate Ranges near Gruyere. It has played a central role in the estate’s rise to the top tier of Yarra Valley Pinot Noir, and its warmer, exposed position gives the wine a noticeably different personality from the cooler Applejack and Bastard Hill sites. Melanie Chester handles that natural generosity beautifully, keeping the fruit bright and the structure finely controlled.

The vineyard climbs from around 130 to 210 metres, with shallow gravelly loam over clay and fractured rock. The combination of slope, exposure and relatively low vigour gives small berries with plenty of flavour and tannin. Sexton is typically the darker and more savoury member of the Giant Steps Pinot family, and the 2025 carries that character with lovely freshness rather than weight.

Bright ruby crimson, it opens with Morello cherry, wild raspberry and red plum, followed by violet, blood orange and dried thyme. Beneath the fruit are more savoury notes of black tea, clove, pink peppercorn and woodland earth. There is a little more flesh through the palate than Applejack, with succulent cherry and plum wrapped in fine, gently grippy tannins. Orange peel and fragrant spice emerge through the middle before a long finish of red fruit, tea leaf and earthy spice.

Try it with char siu pork, duck and shiitake dumplings, chicken yakitori, grilled salmon with miso or lamb skewers with cumin and sesame. Our pick is the char siu. Those caramelised edges, five spice and sweet pork against Sexton’s darker cherry fruit and savoury spice should be dangerously easy to demolish.

Cellaring: Drink from 2027 to 2039.