Caught up with Giant Steps/Innocent Bystander winemaker Steve Flamsteed at the London Wine Fair last week. He was showing their Giant Steps 2010 Chardonnay and Pinot Noir single vineyard wines among others. Great stuff – early days though and you’d expect these to develop well over the medium term. Overall I’m a great admirer of Giant Steps. Production is tiny, the pinnacle of a triangle supported by the Innocent Bystander brand. What’s not to like in their vivacious, bright Pinot Noirs and their classy Chardonnays?

Noses to the grindstone at London’s Saatchi Gallery

January is certainly antipodean month on the London tasting calendar. Just ahead of Australia Day, Wine Australia put on their annual trade tasting, christened A+ Australian Wine at the Saatchi Gallery in London’s Chelsea [above]. Much has been made of how Oz wine has lost its way in recent years, at least in marketing terms and certainly in the battle of the brands, but as the big conglomerates have lost ground, or at least looked uncertain, the real excitement in Australia is the bevy of superb wines being made both by established names and relative newcomers at the smaller and medium sized end of the business.  

Three estates hardly represents a comprehensive tasting of the bounty of the Yarra Valley, but these are an impressive bunch nonetheless. Named after John Coltrane’s first solo album – and reflected in winemaker Phil Sexton’s big move from winemaking in Western Australia [Devil’s Lair] to the Yarra Yalley – Giant Steps is an impressive Yarra producer of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. The Chardonnays have race and verve, you feel they’ll be hitting their stride when others will be kicking the bucket.