Yarra Valley Winery Giant Steps Acquired By US-based Jackson Family Wines

Giant Steps has steadily been building a reputation as one of the most consistent producers in the Yarra Valley.

Yarra Valley winery Giant Steps has been purchased by US company Jackson Family Wines in a deal that includes all company owned vineyards and ongoing vineyard leases. “It is business as usual,” said winemaker Steve Flamsteed, who also sold his minor stake in the company and is staying on for an initial 12-month period. “The message is just make the best wine you can, keep doing what you’re doing.”

The Giant Steps wines have been on a consistent trajectory of style and quality for some years now, with the single-vineyard chardonnay and pinot noir wines rating among the Yarra Valley’s and Australia’s finest. A recent foray into Tasmanian pinot noir was similarly high quality. The new ownership further opens the horizon to expanding into Tasmanian wine production.

It also offers the opportunity to increase Yarra Valley production and refine wine quality even further, as well as increase the ability to secure quality vineyards in both the Yarra Valley and Tasmania, two of Australia’s most highly sought-after vineyard locations. The Sexton and Applejack vineyards are both included in the sale and both have delivered distinctive, high quality in both chardonnay and pinot noir.

Following the sale of Innocent Bystander in 2016 and on the back of an exceptional 2017 harvest, the Giant Steps wines found a new level of precision and focus on vineyard style. The subsequent 2018 and recently released 2019 wines have backed that quality and direction to the point where Giant Steps are widely recognised as perhaps the most consistent producer in the Yarra Valley. The wines sell out quickly in Australia and are very well represented in the top level of restaurant wine lists across the nation. 

Executive Editor Nick Stock with Giant Steps Winemaker Steve Flamsteed.

The two estate vineyards included in the sale have quite different personalities driven by very different locations. The Sexton Vineyard in the Gruyere district of the Yarra produces a complex and subtly layered style in both chardonnay and pinot noir and the wines from here have good ability to improve with age, in particular the Sexton pinot noir. The tannin quality here is impressive and a distinct counter point to the acid-driven structures of Upper Yarra pinot noir sites like Applejack.

The Applejack Vineyard is an east-facing site in the elevated Upper Yarra and delivers an explosive style in both pinot and chardonnay. It has an energetic personality that makes a crunchy, exuberant brand of pinot and the chardonnay style is linear and racy. These wines are instantly impressive, they have explosive aromas and flavors and they have resilient, precise structures.

To date the Tasmanian pinot noir releases have focused on the Nocton Vineyard in the Coal River Valley, just outside the city of Hobart, with some grapes from the Clarence House Vineyard added to the mix in the recent 2020 harvest. The plan under this new ownership is to add further vineyard sources to the Tasmanian side of the project and increase the Giant Steps footprint there. The dual region play also extends the winemaking efficiency of a Yarra-based winery in that the intake of Tasmanian grapes will be after that of the Yarra Valley.

With both the Giant Steps Yarra Valley and Tasmanian wines in career best form, the Jackson Family’s purchase and distribution channels into North America should pave the way to further the recognition of not only the Giant Steps wines, but that of high-quality cool-climate Australian pinot noir and chardonnay per se.

Our tasting notes for Giant Steps below include wines tasted over the past two years. 

– Nick Stock, executive editor