RIPPON Vineyard and Winery

Myself, Andrew Melville, and Marquis Wine Cellars are truly excited with this weeks’ offering; Central Otago’s ‘Rippon Vineyard’. As some might know, I was in New Zealand recently covering the country and visiting existing suppliers and looking for new ones. My visit to Rippon was a personal highlight of the trip. Rippon is one of the true pioneers of Otago and one of the most beautiful settings for a vineyard anywhere in the world. They’re considered one of the ‘elder statesmen’ for New Zealand wine as a whole though and are on the cutting edge of organic/bio-dynamic viticulture. The wines made here are textured, classy and complex and showcase the beauty of the the site; this year actually marks the 102nd year of growing grapes there. For lovers of Pinot Noir, and Riesling, these wines are must haves.

Two interesting anecdotes from my visit I’d like to share:

1. After arriving at the winery, Nick Mills, who is the current co-owner and winemaker, informed our group that ‘a couple of French guys will be joining us for some barrel tasting’. Not a problem there, the more the merrier. So we all entered the winery and started tasting and shortly after the two ‘French guys’ arrived and it turned out to be  Aubert de Villaine, owner of Domaine de la Romanee-Conti and his assistant. Tasting with good company that day and Aubert said he was very impressed with the wines.

RIppon ’92 Pinot

2. Nick pulled out a special bottle from the cellar; a 1992 Rippon Pinot Noir. The wine was impeccable. It was mature and complex and simply beautiful and certainly had lots of life left in it. I figured I tried over 1000 wines in 10 days down there and this wine is in the top 5 best that I had and I could probably make a strong case for the #1 wine I had.
The wines will arrive at the store in 3 weeks time. Quantities are very limited, so if you’d like to order some, please contact
Andrew@nullmarquis-wines.com. Orders of 6 or more eligible for 5% discount and case or more 10%. Mixed cases more than welcome.

Nick, and the Rippon Vineyard

I’m a Riesling lover and was excited to be in NZ and see what they had to offer. I had dozens of Rieslings and honestly, was quite disappointed by most of them. The Rippon Rieslings, they are head shoulders above the rest. The “Jeunesse” is great to drink now; it’s delicate but powerful with steely dryness. The Riesling from the older vines is dense, mineral driven and intense; hold on to this a few years and let it evolve. The Pinots are similarly built; the ‘Jeunesse’ is silky and smooth and ready to drink while the Estate Pinot has nice depth and concentration and will evolve for a long time if that ’92 is any indication.

2010 “Jeunesse” Riesling – $33.90
“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, this wine is crisp, fruit driven and best enjoyed in its youth. It is whole bunch pressed and run, by gravity, into a settling tank for 12 hours. The juice is then racked, retaining fine lees, into an horizontal fermentation tank (stainless-steel foudre).” – Nick Mills, Rippon Winemaker

2010 Estate Riesling – $43.90
“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.” – Nick Mills, Rippon Winemaker

2008 “Jeunesse” Pinot Noir – $44.90
“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. 10 months of 1-4 year old (no new) french oak barrels. The malolactic fermentation went through unaided (non-inoculated) in springtime and the finished wine put through a light clarification filter before bottling.” – Nick Mills, Rippon Winemaker

2008 Estate Pinot Noir – $64.90
“Pale ruby purple colored, the 2008 Pinot Noir gives earthy red cherry and red currant fruit aromas with some moss and forest floor. The palate is seamlessly crafted with a medium body, medium-high acid, medium level of grainy tannins and a long finish. Drink it 2011 to 2015.
91 points“ – Lisa Perrotti-Brown, The Wine Advocate #191