Rippon "Rippon" Mature Vine Riesling 2021

Reviews

Cameron Douglas MS: 95/100 & Top Wines Tasted 2023.  Wonderful purity and freshness with complexity and power, ripeness and sophistication. Aromas and flavours of preserved lemon and citrus tart, some apricot stone and core of mineral stone. Perfectly balanced as the wine touches the palate - flavours of sweet lemon and fruit spice, yellow apple and wild white flowers. The extended lees contact layers in mouthfeel and complexity without compromising the power, energy and completeness. Fine with mature vine completeness and back bone of acidity, a wine worthy of your attention. Best drinking from day of purchase through 2030+.

James Suckling (JamesSuckling.com): 94/100. A creamy and beautiful riesling with sliced spiced pears and green apple aromas and flavors. Medium body. Off dry. Slate and mineral undertones. Green melon, too. More like a dry wine. Drink now.

Tasting note

Very fragrant with mouthwatering aromas of fresh and ripe lemons, green apples and impressive, stony, flinty notes. The weight and freshness is staggering. Refined, long and piercing, the lemon, green apple and grapefruit flavors carry so fresh. 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.

Aromas and flavours:

Additional information

Type: white wine

Varietal: 100% Riesling

Food match: Drink with sea food, fish, summer salads.

Vineyard site: Lake Wanaka, Central Otago, New Zealand.

Soil: Schist - the metamorphic mother rock, rich in foliated mica and quartzite is deposited as glacial moraines, coarse-layered gravels, ancient lake-bed clays and wind-blown loess.

Winemaking: Picked by hand into small, 10kg cases allowing the fruit to arrive at the winery’s sorting table intact. It is gently crushed by foot and left to macerate on skins overnight. The fruit was then whole bunch pressed and run, by gravity, into a settling tank. 12 hours of settling is passed after which the juice is racked, retaining fine lees, into a horizontal fermentation tank (stainless-steel foudre). The winery’s resident yeast population (non-inoculated) took 25 days to complete fermentation with temperatures ranging from 8-32.5 degrees C. Autolytic portion underwent full malolactic fermentation. Total time on primary lees: 4 months.

Cellaring potential: 2028+

Alcohol: 12.5% vol

Residual sugar: 11.8 g/l

Total acidity: 6.4 g/l

Bottle size: 0.75l

Notice: contains sulfite

Produced and bottled with loving care by: Rippon Vineyard and Winery Ltd., 246 Wanaka-Mount Aspiring Road, Wanaka 9381, New Zealand