2024 Giant Steps Circle of Fifths Pinot Noir

96 POINTS

Philip Rich - Halliday Wine Companion

Along with the chardonnay, this is an exciting new addition to the Giant Steps range. A blend of all the single-vineyard wines and mainly from the vineyards in the Upper Yarra. 40% whole bunches. Gently brooding with aromas of wild black cherries and raspberries along with some whole-bunch–derived fennel seed spice and a touch of violets. Concentrated, with far more stuffing that the Yarra Pinot. Ripe, suave tannins ensure this will be worth cellaring for at least five to eight years.

95 POINTS

Shanteh Wale - Winepilot

A squeaky clean wine with pristine red summer berries. Raspberries, strawberries and dragonfruit encased with red jelly awaiting its dollop of cream. It’s animated with fuzzy sage leaf, boisterous sumac and white pepper spice. Some lint like tannins that thread right from start to finish, you’ll be most likely sipping away steadily to really notice their shadowy presence, but they support the charismatic fruit and woodsy herbal chorus very well. This is a celebration but will go the distance too, think of cellaring for 3-6 years further. Drink now, in a couple of years and squirrel away some. This will be snapped up fast. A lovely wine to have with pork gyoza dumplings.

95 POINTS

James Suckling

This delicate and perfumed pinot is a blend of equal parts from five single-vineyard bottlings. Aromas of maraschino cherries, crushed stones, hibiscus, violets and flowers. The palate is mid-weighted with tightly wound tannins and bright acidity, giving notes of blackberry bushes, blueberries, red apple skins and spices.

94 POINTS

Christina Pickard - Wine Enthusiast

An interesting new wine has joined the Giant Steps stable—a blend of all the estate's single vineyards. There's a whisper of reductive hoisin mushroom funk here at first sniff that adds a dimension to the spiced cherry and blueberry cake aromas. Earthy, herbal vibes follow. It's mid-weight, round, even voluptuous on the palate, a silkiness to the ripe fruit that's tempered by fine, spice-flecked tannins and a lift of mouth-watering acidity. Elegant but with meat on its bones, this is a complete wine now but one with good aging potential, too.

94 POINTS

Campbell Mattinson - The Wine Front

This is complex and well-flavoured but it’s the spread of the finish that sets it apart. It’s an excellent pinot noir. Complex blue, red and black berried/cherried fruit flavours, gentle reductive notes, a general freshness, and a silken-bordering-on-velvety touch to the palate texture. Red cherry and strawberry characters are the main game but it darts in various directions from there, mint and crushed twiggy herb notes in there among it all, along with undergrowth, along with woodsmoke. This wine feels as though it’s itching to release yet more complexities; it has that vibe. Time will be kind.

92 POINTS

Erin Larkin - Robert Parker Wine Advocate

The 2024 Circle of Fifths Pinot Noir is so named because it features fruit from all five single vineyards—it also references a complex but interesting musical arrangement concept linked to John Coltrane, should one be so inclined to look it up (I did so, after pressing "play" on one of my favored Coltrane albums). The wine leads with rose petal perfume, cherry blossom, red apple, star anise, pomegranate, licorice and dried sage, with leather, tobacco and tapenade to close. In the mouth, there is a lot going on, yet I find the intersection of acidity and tannin through the finish to skew and occlude the flow of both thought and flavor. 13.5% alcohol, sealed under screw cap. I sometimes wonder (quietly to myself, because such thinking is not so welcome in Australia) whether or not this wine would indeed benefit from the gently oxidative environment provided by a cork, instead of a screw cap. At the very least, decanting this would provide the wine with some breathing space.