Circle of Fifths Pinot Noir - Pre Release

Wine Details

• Region Yarra Valley, Victoria
• Vintage 2024
• Type Red Wine
• Variety Pinot Noir
• Volume 750ml
• Alcohol Volume 13.5%
• PH

  3.49

• Acidity

  6.0g/L

• Closure ScrewCap
• Bottling Date

  January 2024

• Harvest Date

  February - March 2024

• Background

  Blended exclusively from our single sites in similar proportions, Circle of Fifths wines are made up of the batches that are not chosen for the Single Vineyard wines from that year. They capture the strengths of our unique sites into one wine, coming together to tell a new story. “Where the Single Vineyard wines are the pure tones of each vineyard, Circle of Fifths is the chord.” -Melanie Chester

• Vintage Notes

  The 2024 vintage was a more classic Yarra season. A cool start to Spring and ideal flowering conditions led to good fruit set and moderate yields. December was cool and mild, with significant rainfall at New Years and during the first week of January, giving the vines a good drink leading into the heat of February. Mid to late February was drier and warmer than is common in the Yarra, leading to great ripening conditions with no disease pressure and quite a fast vintage. In 2024, all of our Pinot and Chardonnay was ready in quick succession, leading to a compressed harvest - with the whole valley picked in the space of 3 weeks (where it normally spreads across 6 weeks). An exciting ride for our team, but ultimately giving us wines with great flavour, bright acidity and balance.

• Vineyard Notes

  Tarraford, Sexton, Primavera, Applejack and Bastard Hill Vineyards

• Winemaking

  At Giant Steps, we hand pick 100% of our fruit and fastidiously hand sorted in the vineyard. Pinot Noir has one of two processing pathways at Giant Steps - either fermented semi carbonic with 100% whole bunch or destemmed and fermented with whole berries. When the fruit arrives at the winery we determine which direction to take the parcel depending on clone, vineyard, stem ripeness and flavour. Our whole bunch batches are fermented warm with minimal mixing for 14 days. The destemmed whole berry parcels are cold soaked for 3 days before we allow them to warm up and start fermentation naturally. All of our cap management is done using gravity drain and returns, allowing for gentle extraction before pressing. Each parcel is the transferred by gravity to French oak Barriques for malolactic fermentation and is kept on those lees for the duration of its maturation. The parcels are blended together in Spring before bottling in December. The 2024 Circle of Fifths blend is 42% whole bunch parcels and 15% new French oak. This wine is bottled by gravity without fining or filtration.