Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
e 2012 Sexton Vineyard Chardonnay has notes of ripe apricots, honeydew melon and guava with hints of cashews, meal and allspice. Light to medium-bodied, there is a pleasant suggestion of silkiness to the texture along with racy acid and some mineral layers in the long finish. Approachable now, it is best to drink 2014-2019+.
Rating: 92+ -
Wine Enthusiast
The centerpiece of Phil Sexton’s current venture (he previously founded and sold both a brewery and a winery) is this single vineyard, from which he makes a Pinot Noir and this wine. The 2012 Chard is a bold yet elegant wine, filled with grilled pineapple and citrus fruit and framed by hints of toasted nuts, vanilla and graphite.
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Wine Spectator
Crisp, vibrant and expressive, layered with nectarine, grapefruit and white pepper flavors, finishing with intensity, length and deft balance. Drink now through 2020.
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Wine & Spirits
The richest of the three Giant Steps chardonnays from 2012, Sexton grows at a vineyard neighboring Yarra Yering and Coldstream Hills. It’s more about roundness of texture than flavor depth at the moment. If you open it now, the light notes of ripe grapes and toasted grain will meld with roast fish in a cream sauce.
One of the most popular and versatile white wine grapes, Chardonnay offers a wide range of flavors and styles depending on where it is grown and how it is made. While it tends to flourish in most environments, Chardonnay from its Burgundian homeland produces some of the most remarkable and longest lived examples. California produces both oaky, buttery styles and leaner, European-inspired wines. Somm Secret—The Burgundian subregion of Chablis, while typically using older oak barrels, produces a bright style similar to the unoaked style. Anyone who doesn't like oaky Chardonnay would likely enjoy Chablis.
As the most important area of wine production in Victoria today, the Yarra Valley is most popular for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, which account for over half of vineyard acreage. A gentle, rolling and rural region alongside the Margaret River, the Yarra Valley has a cool maritime climate with a lengthy growing season, perfect for these cool-climate varieties.
Two styles of Pinot Noir are possible here. The warmer Lower Yarra Valley with sandy, loam soils, produces plush and fruity Pinot Noir while the cooler, higher-elevation Upper Yarra Valley with soils of young red basalt, produces more angular and mineral-driven Pinot Noir.
Yarra Valley Chardonnay is among the best in Australia. To preserve the floral aromatics and fresh citrus flavors for which this area’s Chardonnay is so appreciated, time in barrel is restrained (though barrel fermentation is common). The best Yarra Valley Chardonnays display brilliant acidity, leesy characteristics, citrus, stone fruit and flavors of ginger and spice.
Shiraz and Cabernet find success in parts of this region as well.