Region: Yarra Valley
Sub Region: Gruyere – Warramate Ranges
Variety: Pinot Noir
Country: Australia
Vintage: 2025
The Wine
Sexton is the warmest and most exposed of the principal Giant Steps Pinot sites, sitting on steep north-facing slopes of the Warramate Ranges at Gruyere. Planted in 1997 between approximately 130 and 210 metres, its thin grey clay-loam soils lie over gravel, granite, ironstone and rocky clay. Naturally low yields and a high skin-to-juice ratio consistently give Sexton more colour, fruit weight and tannin than the cooler Upper Yarra vineyards.
The vineyard carries a broad mix of Pinot clones including MV6, G5V15, Abel, Pommard and D clone. G5V15 in particular responds well to Sexton’s sunlight exposure, contributing the dark cherry, plum and more generous texture associated with the site.
In 2025 all fruit was destemmed to whole berries, then cold soaked for four days before wild fermentation in a combination of small oak fermenters and stainless-steel open vats. The wine spent ten months in French oak barriques—22% new and 78% seasoned—on its lees without racking. Bottling was by gravity, with no fining or filtration.
This is the darkest and most structured of the four Yarra single-vineyard Pinots in 2025: black fruit, dark raspberry, stewed rhubarb, earth, pepper and a distinctly savoury mineral quality. It is also the least open today.
Cellared Says
Sexton is the Pinot I’d buy specifically for the cellar. It’s the most powerful and closed of the Yarra single-vineyard wines in 2025, and I wouldn’t rush it. There is terrific fruit underneath, but the real attraction is the structure. Give this three to five years and it should become a wonderfully multi-layed wine that well out performs its price point.
Reviews
“More black fruits than red fruits, stewed rhubarb, a little earth and iodine, too.”
96 Points – Philip Rich, Halliday Wine Companion
“There’s no escaping the seriousness of this wine. It’s cool, spicy and complex, but it has heft and power.”
96 Points – Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front
Region: Yarra Valley
Sub Region: Gruyere – Warramate Ranges
Variety: Pinot Noir
Country: Australia
Vintage: 2025
The Wine
Sexton is the warmest and most exposed of the principal Giant Steps Pinot sites, sitting on steep north-facing slopes of the Warramate Ranges at Gruyere. Planted in 1997 between approximately 130 and 210 metres, its thin grey clay-loam soils lie over gravel, granite, ironstone and rocky clay. Naturally low yields and a high skin-to-juice ratio consistently give Sexton more colour, fruit weight and tannin than the cooler Upper Yarra vineyards.
The vineyard carries a broad mix of Pinot clones including MV6, G5V15, Abel, Pommard and D clone. G5V15 in particular responds well to Sexton’s sunlight exposure, contributing the dark cherry, plum and more generous texture associated with the site.
In 2025 all fruit was destemmed to whole berries, then cold soaked for four days before wild fermentation in a combination of small oak fermenters and stainless-steel open vats. The wine spent ten months in French oak barriques—22% new and 78% seasoned—on its lees without racking. Bottling was by gravity, with no fining or filtration.
This is the darkest and most structured of the four Yarra single-vineyard Pinots in 2025: black fruit, dark raspberry, stewed rhubarb, earth, pepper and a distinctly savoury mineral quality. It is also the least open today.
Cellared Says
Sexton is the Pinot I’d buy specifically for the cellar. It’s the most powerful and closed of the Yarra single-vineyard wines in 2025, and I wouldn’t rush it. There is terrific fruit underneath, but the real attraction is the structure. Give this three to five years and it should become a wonderfully multi-layed wine that well out performs its price point.
Reviews
“More black fruits than red fruits, stewed rhubarb, a little earth and iodine, too.”
96 Points – Philip Rich, Halliday Wine Companion
“There’s no escaping the seriousness of this wine. It’s cool, spicy and complex, but it has heft and power.”
96 Points – Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front
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