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2019 Giant Steps Clay Ferment Ocarina Chardonnay

Yarra Valley, Victoria, AUSTRALIA
$56. 99
Bottle
$683.88 Dozen
Cellar: Drink now - 4 Years (2020-2024)
ABV: 13%
Closure: Stelvin
Wild fermented in 600 litre clay pots. Brilliant pale straw colour with greenish tinged edges and a watery hue. Elevated white peach and juicy nectarine aromas have a subtle wet stone overlay with green apple and subtle fresh herb infusions also evident. Light to medium weight in body the freshly fruited palate has flavours of fleshy peaches and nectarines which meld into green apple, lime, subtle fresh herb characters and a touch of stony minerality. Brisk finish with an elegant medium length aftertaste.
Drink over the next 3-4 years.
Alc. 13%

Other Reviews….
All the Giant Steps single vineyard chardonnay is found in this wine. A combo. The wine is fermented and rested in 600 litre clay egg vessels. Cool. But we’ve been here before. Giant Steps’ winemaker Steve Flamsteed puts very little feet wrong in his quarry. This is another wine to keep his (Flamsteed’s) brain ticking, while delighting and audience no doubt. This one is right on the pace of the 2018.
A multi-dimensional chardonnay of easy pleasure but lots of fine detail. There’s a slickness but also light chew to the wine, concentration of flavour is pronounced but acidity is too, lifting the wine and keeping all that green apple, faint cookie dough and citrusy zing all integrated and brought precisely and compact across the palate. There’s a sense of general ‘purity’ too, though a quiet, yeasty savouriness might pop question marks up around that statement. It’s a wonderful chardonnay, character-filled, delicious, just shy of medium weight, bright and vivacious. You’d do well getting into this. Drink 2019-2027.
95 points
Mike Bennie – The Wine Front