2023 Giant Steps Applejack Vineyard Pinot Noir

Planted in the upper Yarra Valley on a dramatic slope which allows for a cooler and extended growing season, the Applejack Vineyard Pinot Noir is regularly one of the highlights of Giant Steps single vineyard releases. Applejack Pinot Noir has a very strong track record of accolades, including last year being awarded 2024 Halliday Wine Companion Pinot Noir of the Year.

Other Reviews....
Pinot Noir of the Year. Named after the Applejack eucalypts that surround the vineyard, which was planted at Gladysdale in 1997 by Ray Guerin. Seven clones comprising 114, 115, MV6, D2V5, D5V15, Pommard and Abel. Whole bunches (40%) and 20–25% new French barriques. 2022 was a hard act to follow, but this superb wine gives it a shake. Exotic, aromatic and pure with its bouquet of wild strawberries, dark cherries, quince, spices and flowers. Densley packed, this saturates the palate, but, as always, it's light on its feet at the same time. Seamless tannins round out another benchmark for what's already a benchmark wine. Drink 2024-2030.
98 Points
Philip Rich - James Halliday's Australian Wine Companion

A complex story unfolds along the palate – reflective of the complex plantings of MV6, G5V15, 114 and Pommard clones across the steep Applejack Vineyard, that rises sharply from 180m to almost 300m in the upper Yarra Valley. A moreish juiciness is celebrated thanks to 40% whole-bunch fruit in the fermentation, but the sophisticated flavour profile in this restrained, almost coy expression turns very serious in the back-palate, when a surge of black cherry grunt enters the conversation and leaves you with plenty to contemplate by its powerful closing note. Drink 2024 - 2032.
96 Points
David Sly - Decanter

The Applejack Vineyard at Gladysdale in the Yarra Valley is on an east facing slope on grey soils. There’s a 100 metre drop from the top of the vineyard to the bottom. There’s also significant clonal diversity in this vineyard. It was planted in 1997.
I tasted this wine a few months ago and loved it from the first sip. I have it on the desk now and there it is again, aglimmer in the glass. This wine is no one’s fool. It’s a pure expression of its place in the world and that place happens to be complex. It’s a cool wine with straight trees of tannin, perfumed red and black berries, lines of spice and echoes of woodsmoke. It’s a forest of a wine, a bit lush, a bit wet, a bit woody; verdant. At all times, as you drink it, the fruit comes at you like a swell. When you swallow this wine it flares out like you’ve reached the lookout at the end of a long walk. It’s a good wine. And it’s more than that. Drink 2025 - 2036+
96 Points
Campbell Mattinson - The Wine Front

The final blend of this wine is around 40% whole bunch fermented from the grey clay soils containing Able, MV6, Pommard, 114 and 115 clones. Red toffee apple, hibiscus, and freshly smeared lipstick. Rosella, beetroot and cassis. Exotically spiced, savoury and earthy. The mid palate has a clarity of Bing cherry that’s astonishing. Followed by prune plums, Quong dong and finishing with amplified acidity. There is an umami note, almost like a delicious msg sprinkle. Some decently weighted tannins keep the palate flavours echoing long into the next sip, its sturdy in its structure ensuring this wine will outlive almost any Aussie pinot noir. It’s bullet proof and worth every cent and more. Drink now or will cellar for 10 years. A wonderful wine to have with sirloin, truffle crisps or drinking alone.
98 Points
Shanteh Wale - WinePilot.com