Rippon ‘Emma’s Block’ Mature Vine Pinot Noir 2020

Picked by hand into small, 10kg cases allowing the fruit to arrive at the winery’s sorting table undamaged and intact. Picked and fermented separately in 3,          2-tonne stainless-steel fermenters.

Each parcel is fermented and matured apart before blending. The winery’s resident yeast population (non-inoculated) took 10 days to ferment; and spanned temperatures between 9-30° Celsius.

Total time of skin contact: 16, 23, and 28 days

12 months of new (17.2%) to 4 year old French oak barrels. The malolactic fermentation went through unaided (non-inoculated) in springtime; it was then racked back into barrel and allowed a second winter in neutral barrels before being run directly into bottle without filtering or fining.

Total time in barrel: 18 months

RIPPON PINOT NOIR CENTRAL OTAGO EMMA’S BLOCK 2020
Country: New Zealand
Region: Central Otago
Vintage:2020
Score: 98  – James Suckling
This is so opened and perfumed with sliced strawberry, orange and fresh mushroom. Full, velvety and caressing texture and finish. Articulate. Seductive. From biodynamically grown grapes with Demeter certification. Drink or hold.

Rippon, Emma’s Block Mature Vine Pinot Noir 2020 Central Otago
17 Points
Full bottle 1,301 g. From a specific east-facing block on the lakefront where blue clay reefs run laterally through fine schist gravel. Mature vines were grown biodynamically and hand-harvested. Spontaneous fermentation and oak-ageing for two winters before being bottled unfined and unfiltered. Transparent purplish garnet. More evolution on the nose than the rather backward 2019. A little sweeter and juicier and possibly a tiny bit simpler but already lots of fun and a pleasure to drink. Fruit/freshness balance very pleasing. A frank vineyard expression with zero sign of winemaking artifice. Jancis Robinson  12th – 20th July 2023

2020 Rippon Emma’s Block Mature Vine Pinot Noir
Rating:95+
Drink Date:2023 – 2035
The 2020 Emma’s Block Mature Vine Pinot Noir leads with dehydrated cranberry, cherry blossom, graphite and dried star anise. The nose is exotic and restrained at once. This is the entree to the palate which is defined absolutely by the tannins that feel very much like they plume in the wine, like a drop of blood in water. These are wines to feel as much as they are to taste, and this is what helps them stand alone in this place. It’s superb, with unbroken form through the long finish—no strays, no rough edges, no breaks. 13.5% alcohol, sealed under Diam. The vines are east facing and close to the lake, with less afternoon sun (which means it isn’t exposed to the extended heat of the afternoon). “There is clay down there which gives the tannins more mobility and animation,” says Nick Mills.
Reviewed by: RobertParker.com/Erin Larkin
Source:December 2023 Week 2
Published date:Dec 15, 2023
Wine regions:Central Otago
Color/Maturity/Type/Sweetness: Red/Early/Table/Dry
Variety:Pinot Noir

Rippon Emma’s Block Pinot Noir 2020
Posted on 20 November 2022.
A stroll through the Rippon farm this week was as always enlightening and gobsmacking. Few vineyards on earth are as beautiful and in a ballistically scenic location, fewer still farmed to the nth degree as Rippon. Always something to learn there too; how about the couple of rows of syrah and cabernet sauvignon, some of the oldest on the property!
It’s a pale but vibrant ruby colour in the glass. Light, attractive scents of fragrant roses, lavender, just ripe raspberry, white pepper and sage leaf. Pretty. Maybe a saline whiff too. The palate is super fine, decidedly a pyre, lighter, tense expression, but with hallmark detail in tannin profile making for a refreshing and memorable wine. Very fresh, cranberry, pomegranate and dried herb flavours with briny acidity in tow – the flavours. So very beautiful, fragile almost, and wonderful to drink. Pause and reflect.
Rated : 96 Points Mike Bennie
Tasted : NOV22
Alcohol : 13.5%