Rippon, “Tinker’s Field”, Mature Vine Pinot Noir, 2008

A unique parcel within Rippon, Tinker’s Field is a gentle, north facing slope formed by an ancient ejection cone of coarse schist gravels. Tinker’s Field is home to the oldest vines on the property and is named after Rippon’s visionary founder, Rolfe Mills (Tink to his friends), and the land that he had dreamed of farming since childhood.

Form and feel: Layered, detailed, compressed power, precise, unforced masculinity.   85 cases produced

  Limit:  6 bottles per order

Rippon, “Emma’s Block”, Mature Vine Pinot Noir, 2008

A unique parcel within Rippon, Emma’s Block faces eastward on the lakefront where ancient clay reefs run laterally through fine schist gravels. Emma’s Block is named after the great-great-great grandmother of the current generation of the Mills family, through whom the name entered into the family.

Form & feel: Detailed, sleek, fine, glide, animated femininity. 87 cases produced. 

Limit: 6 bottles per order

Rippon "Rippon" Mature Vine Pinot Noir, 2008 

The farm voice of a distinct parcel of land: Rippon. On the western board of Roy's Bay, Lake Wanaka, Rippon's north-facing escarpment forms the meeting point of terminal moraines and coarse gravels, all based in schist, on which some of the region's earliest vines were planted. Rippon is a Wine issued from all of the fully developed Pinot Noir vines growing in this land.

Older vintages are available from time to time in magnum and jeroboam format. Please contact us for availability.

Vines in their youth, or Jeunesse, are not yet mature enough to communicate fully all the complexities of their soil and site. Issued from several younger parcels within Rippon, Jeunesse therefore remains a pure and precise expression of its variety: Pinot Noir. It is the spirited voice of Pinot Noir grown at Rippon, rather than the voice of the land from which it came.

Rippon Riesling 2008

A warm & productive summer put plenty of flesh on this wine. The fruit is issued from Rippon's mature vines, whose root hairs have invaded the schist rock below. Lurking towards the end of the first mouthful is substantial phenolic power and it soon starts to take charge of the wine... and give it its sense of place

Older vintages of Riesling are available from time to time in magnum format. Please contact us for availability.

Rippon Jeunesse Riesling 2008

 As with the Jeunesse Pinot Noir, this is a wine of exuberance and life; this is a Riesling that speaks of its variety, of its fruit and not yet of its soils. As such, it is a wine best enjoyed in its youth.

Rippon Sauvignon Blanc 2009

40% of this wine was fermented in old French barrels, not for the oak, but for the form of the vessel itself. Mouthfeel is gained here by high lees to wine contact and a more efficient natural lees stirring across unhurried wild ferments.

Rippon Gewurztraminer 2008

With maturing vines and the first really favourable year for Gewurz since 2003, this wine speaks with real accuracy and pride of its place. This, along with slow, whole bunch pressings, wild ferments and extended lees contact, has resulted in a wine which is defined by remarkable grace and clarity.

Rippon Gamay Rose 2008 - SOLD OUT

 This was an exceptional year for our small parcel of Gamay. It's a real treat to work with a vareity planted by so very few in NZ, especially as it clearly loves having its feet firmly planted in Rippon's schist soils. As a Rose, its vibrancy and freshness set it apart.

 Rippon Hotere Osteiner 2008 

The long 2008 season saw the Osteiner pull out all the shots and the bottled result is probably one of the finest we have produced to date. Enjoy over a long summer lunch.