Giant Steps

History

Giant Steps was founded in the Yarra Valley in the mid-1990s by Phil Sexton, a figure already known in Australian hospitality and brewing circles. Sexton sold the business in the 2010s, and the winery passed through a transition that brought fresh investment and expanded the label's ambitions without fundamentally altering its direction. The estate is now independently owned and continues to operate out of Healesville, which serves as both the production facility and a restaurant destination. The name itself is borrowed from the John Coltrane album, a signal from the start that the project had cultural reference points beyond wine.

The producer built its reputation primarily on chardonnay at a time when cool-climate Australian chardonnay was still finding its footing with critics and consumers accustomed to the riper, more opulent styles from warmer regions. Giant Steps leaned early into restraint and vineyard specificity, a positioning that has only grown more relevant as the category has matured.

Vineyards

The Yarra Valley is a wide and climatically varied appellation, and Giant Steps draws fruit from multiple distinct sites that reflect this. Bastard Hill and Sexton Vineyard represent some of the steeper, cooler elevations in the upper valley, where slower ripening tends to produce tighter, more mineral-edged fruit. Applejack and Tarraford are among the named single-vineyard releases that have accumulated track records across multiple vintages. The Circle of Fifths bottling sits at the top of the hierarchy and appears to draw on select blocks rather than a single named site.

The Yarra Valley's soils vary considerably across the region, running from grey loam over clay in the lower valley to reddish volcanic soils and grey silt loam at higher elevations. Specific farming certifications for Giant Steps are not consistently documented in public sources, so no organic or biodynamic status can be confirmed here.

Winemaking

Giant Steps makes chardonnay in a style that prioritizes line and tension over richness. The wines are typically whole-bunch pressed and barrel-fermented, with oak treatment that is present but subordinate to fruit and acidity. New oak usage is restrained across the range. Native yeast fermentation has been part of the approach for the single-vineyard wines, though practices can vary by bottling and vintage.

The tiered range moves from the appellation-level Yarra Valley Chardonnay up through individual vineyard releases to the Circle of Fifths at the apex. This structure allows the winery to make a clear argument about site differentiation within a single variety, and the vintage-to-vintage consistency of sites like Applejack and Sexton gives drinkers a meaningful basis for comparison over time. Pinot noir is also produced under the Giant Steps label with similar single-vineyard ambition, though chardonnay remains the clearest expression of what the producer does best.