2003-RIPPON-Pinot-Noir

RIPPON

2003 Pinot Noir

Grapes Pinot Noir
Colour Red
Origin New Zealand, South Island
ABV 13%

Re-released to mark the centenary of owning the land, thirty years of commercial viticulture and ten years since Nick Mills returned home to start making the wines at Rippon. The 2003 tastes fabulously good with maturing fruit, still great freshness and fabulous length. L&S (Aug 2005)


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A cooler vintage. A clean, vigorous, garnet to crimson colour, with both generosity and precision on the nose. Bright ripe fresh red fruit, still some tannins on the palate, while the acidity is well folded in. Roses and peonies join the fruit, this is a complex and impressive wine. Rippon is starting to come of age, and Nick Mills shows he is ready to push a little further. Tasted Sep 2024. Rating: ***** Jasper Morris - Inside Burgundy  (Sept 2024)

The 2003 Pinot Noir contains 10 grams per liter residual sugar and has quite a stunning nose of freshly tilled soil, followed by a distinctly Burgundy-inspired palate with silky smooth tannins and a light, ethereal finish. If ever there was a producer that gave a tantalizing glimpse of what New Zealand Pinot Noir can achieve with mature vines i.e. over 20-years in age, then it is Rippon Vineyard, whose first, pioneering block was planted on schist soils by Rolfe Mills back in 1981 in Wanaka, Central Otago. The winemaking is now directed by Rolfe’s ambitious son Nick Mills. His tenures in Burgundy with the likes of Jean-Jacques Confuron and Domaine de la Romanee-Conti are evidenced in Nick’s occasionally superlative wines. Their 15-hectares of vineyard are now run under biodynamic principles although they are not as yet officially certified Rating: 89 Neal Martin, www.vinous.com (Sept 2008)

lovely inner-palate energy and lovely spicy lift to its complex aromas and flavors of dark fruits and smoky, truffley underbrush, meriting a solid 89 points on my most recent tasting. Rating: 89 Stephen Tanzer's International Wine Cellar (Sept 2007)

Rippon

Nick Mills returned home after several years away, working with the likes of Alain and Sophie Meunier at Domaine JJ Confuron, and Pascal Marchand (late of Domaine Comte Armand and then at Domaine de la Vougeraie). This experience with some of the leading players in Burgundy fired him up with enthusiasm, and we are already seeing the fruits of his experience in the changes in viticulture (to bio-dynamism) and the increased depth of mineral complexity in the wines.

Nick Mills on Biodynamics: 'Granted custodianship over this very special piece of land, the family's principle goal is to create vins de terroir, wines that are an accurate reflection of their surroundings. It is the micro-life in our soils which, in their ability to metabolise minerals into a form that vines can assimilate, are the link in between plants and the earth. This simple biology is the essential framework in producing a wine which is true to its soil and site. With this understanding comes an absolute respect for the land and life therein and it is for this reason that Rippon is run biodynamically.

Decisions made in the vineyard and winery first consider the effect the outcome may have on the micro-flora of the soils, vines & wines. Rippon does not use herbicides, fungicides, pesticides or soluble nitrogenous fertilisers on the property. All the property's organic waste matter is recycled to make around 40 tonnes of fungal dominant compost every year. This is spread back over the land during the first descending moon after harvest as an inoculation of beneficial micro-flora for the whole property...and thus starts a diverse and vital web of life on which to live and produce.

This wine isn't currently part of a mixed case, but you can always browse our full selection of mixed cases here.
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