Region: Tasmania
Sub Region: Coal River Valley – Nocton Vineyard
Variety: Pinot Noir
Country: Australia
Vintage: 2025
The Wine
Coal River is the geographic outlier in the Giant Steps Single Vineyard collection and intentionally so. The fruit comes from Nocton Vineyard, planted in 1999 in Tasmania’s Coal River Valley. Its north-east-facing vines sit on calcareous and Triassic sandstone soils, with MV6 and D5V12 among the key Pinot clones.
The cool Tasmanian climate provides an obvious contrast to the Yarra, but Coal River’s long, intense daylight hours allow Pinot to build surprising depth and colour. The result is less overtly floral than Applejack or Primavera and noticeably more muscular: blackberry, dark cherry and bramble rather than delicate red berries.
The logistics themselves are unusual. Fruit is hand-picked and immediately loaded into refrigerated transport, travelling across Bass Strait to Giant Steps’ Yarra winery. In 2025 it was destemmed, cold soaked for three to four days and fermented in open oak vats and stainless-steel fermenters. The wine then spent eight months in French oak barriques, 21% new and 79% seasoned, before bottling by gravity without fining or filtration.
The 2025 is dense but finely controlled: dark cherry, blackberry, white and black pepper and violet, with compact tannins and a distinct mineral, slightly ferrous quality. It is unquestionably Pinot Noir, but it speaks a very different dialect from the four Yarra wines.
Cellared Says
I really like having this beside the Yarra Pinots because the contrast is so clear. Coal River is darker, denser and more muscular, but it still has the polish and fine tannin that runs through Mel Chester’s wines. It isn’t trying to imitate Applejack—it’s a completely different site, and that’s exactly the point. I’ve never quite got the previous vintages of this wine, but the warmer ‘25 vintage seems to have given this site extra depth and character. Its very good and whilst we shouldn’t compare to other famous sites nearby, I would buy this over the competition in 2025.
Reviews
“Concentrated with dark cherry, blackberry, white and black pepper and a little crushed violet.”
95+ Points – Philip Rich, Halliday Wine Companion
“A little bit more structure, a little more bass and fruit-grunt perhaps, the same polish, the same excellence.”
95+ Points – Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front
Region: Tasmania
Sub Region: Coal River Valley – Nocton Vineyard
Variety: Pinot Noir
Country: Australia
Vintage: 2025
The Wine
Coal River is the geographic outlier in the Giant Steps Single Vineyard collection and intentionally so. The fruit comes from Nocton Vineyard, planted in 1999 in Tasmania’s Coal River Valley. Its north-east-facing vines sit on calcareous and Triassic sandstone soils, with MV6 and D5V12 among the key Pinot clones.
The cool Tasmanian climate provides an obvious contrast to the Yarra, but Coal River’s long, intense daylight hours allow Pinot to build surprising depth and colour. The result is less overtly floral than Applejack or Primavera and noticeably more muscular: blackberry, dark cherry and bramble rather than delicate red berries.
The logistics themselves are unusual. Fruit is hand-picked and immediately loaded into refrigerated transport, travelling across Bass Strait to Giant Steps’ Yarra winery. In 2025 it was destemmed, cold soaked for three to four days and fermented in open oak vats and stainless-steel fermenters. The wine then spent eight months in French oak barriques, 21% new and 79% seasoned, before bottling by gravity without fining or filtration.
The 2025 is dense but finely controlled: dark cherry, blackberry, white and black pepper and violet, with compact tannins and a distinct mineral, slightly ferrous quality. It is unquestionably Pinot Noir, but it speaks a very different dialect from the four Yarra wines.
Cellared Says
I really like having this beside the Yarra Pinots because the contrast is so clear. Coal River is darker, denser and more muscular, but it still has the polish and fine tannin that runs through Mel Chester’s wines. It isn’t trying to imitate Applejack—it’s a completely different site, and that’s exactly the point. I’ve never quite got the previous vintages of this wine, but the warmer ‘25 vintage seems to have given this site extra depth and character. Its very good and whilst we shouldn’t compare to other famous sites nearby, I would buy this over the competition in 2025.
Reviews
“Concentrated with dark cherry, blackberry, white and black pepper and a little crushed violet.”
95+ Points – Philip Rich, Halliday Wine Companion
“A little bit more structure, a little more bass and fruit-grunt perhaps, the same polish, the same excellence.”
95+ Points – Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front
Image 1 of 1
