2020 - Rippon, Mature Vine Pinot Noir

The 2020 Rippon Mature Vine Pinot Noir is restrained on the nose, with an earthy (i.e., of the earth, gray rocks, etc.) countenance that I find highly engaging. In the mouth, the fruit comes alive with cherry and cranberry, pomegranate pearls, graphite and pencil lead, layers of black tea, coal dust and brine. This is dark without being heavy or dense, and it’s very fine. The silty tannins linger through the finish and seem to settle on the palate, which is pleasurable. It's fresh, and it's restrained and composed. An exciting wine. 13.5% alcohol, sealed under Diam. "2020 is like a fresh, low metabolism year I would say," says Nick Mills, owner/winemaker, with smaller yields and a cooler vintage. "The wines are like the farm voice. It's a Steiner version of terroir, the farm individuality. We farm the land, which has its own individuality. The expression is something we can taste and feel," explains Nick. The vineyard was planted between 1982 and 2000. The wine was all estate fruit, handpicked, biodynamically farmed and micro-fermented, spending 14-28 days on skins using ambient wild ferments. It spent two winters in barrel—15% to 20% new in the first winter and completely neutral oak in the second winter. Bottled unfined and unfiltered, it spent two years in bottle prior to release.

Mellow and tender, the 2020 Pinot Noir Mature Vine gently slides across the palate. Seamless and suave, it is concentrated, complex and balanced. There's juicy, approachable fruit within its cherry fruity, savory core with an herbal element joining spiced, cedar characters on the finish. Fine pinprick-like tannins provide a gentle layer of texture on the scented finish. The 2020 can be approached in youth, but it has the integrity to evolve gracefully in the coming decade.