Giant Steps "Bastard Hill" Yarra Valley Chardonnay 2023 12.5% 6x75cl (Halliday 98 points)

98 points James Halliday’s Australian Wine Companion

Why “Bastard Hill”? Because it’s a “bastard” to get up to it and that’s why its previous owner seemingly ignored it, well, not totally. In the 1990s fruit from the vineyard was the backbone of some great Eileen Hardy Chardonnays (yes, that’s the previous owners), but then it just got too hard.

The tasting note from the latest Halliday guide rates this wine as “reminiscent of good Corton-Charlemagne”, which starts at twice the price of this wine.  It is taut, concentrated and very fine. There’s a lovely purity to the lemon and lime fruit, with just a slight hint of peach and pear richness, showing lovely crystalline fruit with a stony minerality sitting underneath. Restrained and intense with lovely precision.

‘It’s the greatest Chardonnay year I’ve seen in the Yarra,’ says consultant winemaker Steve Flamstead. This has the potential to become one of Australia’s great Chardonnays.