2020 Rippon Tinkers Field Pinot Noir

Highly Rated
The most structured and intense of the single block Rippon Pinot Noirs, chiselled from the oldest vines on the vineyard.

Price:
Sale price$170.00
Stock:
Sold out
Rendering loop-subscriptions

Description

Tinker's Field is a special section of the Rippon Vineyard that vigneron, Nick Mills, feels speaks with a unique accent.

A small portion of Pinot Noir grown on the Northern slope closer to Lake Wanaka is bottled separately to tell a richer story of the season from Rippon's point of view.

This is a brilliant Pinot Noir. Architectural, structural, tense and brooding, this is one of the finest single vineyard expressions of Pinot Noir to be found anywhere on New Zealand's South Island.

99 points & New Zealand Wine of the Year
"It's seemingly endless... It's complete and moving to taste now. Drinkable even now, but try to be patient. From biodynamically grown grapes with Demeter certification. Best after 2026, but already stunning."
- James Suckling

96+ points
"Poise. Tension and fine fine detail. Peppery finish. Very graceful."
- Kasia Sobiesiak

99 points & New Zealand Wine of the Year - "Aromas of raspberries and plums with forest fruits and violets. Orange blossom, too. Medium- to full-bodied. Superbly polished tannins that run vertically down the wine and take you very deep and long. It's seemingly endless. Dark strawberry and raspberry and hints of terra cotta and dark stones. It's complete and moving to taste now. Drinkable even now, but try to be patient. From biodynamically grown grapes with Demeter certification. Best after 2026, but already stunning." - James Suckling

96+ points - "Deep into the cherry spectrum, fresh and cooked, some hints of bitter-sweet almond. Some plum and fresh fig too, power and presence yet elegance and a very cool wet river stones flow. Meanwhile, it’s juicy and with a blood orange tang, a hint of coffee and fine-grained silty tannins. Poise. Tension and fine fine detail. Peppery finish. Very graceful." - Kasia Sobiesiak

95+ points - "If the Rippon 2019s were firm, structured and for a time in the future, the 2020s feel more pretty, fine, detailed but ready to roll. That being said, this Tinker’s is the most intense and concentrated of the 2020s with pronounced tannin and savoury qualities needing time to resolve. Still, we have an excellent, excellent wine on hand. Scents of dark cherry, sweet earth, undergrowth, Chinese five spice. The palate feels swishy, dark fruited, sappy with graphite tannins and Fernet-like bitter, savoury finish. While brooding and generally dark as a pinot, it lifts beautifully, tightens to freshness and lingers with stony, savouriness with great persistence. There’s an autumnal feel here, and very strong mineral characters. Serious stuff, but with vitality in tow. Hard one to pin down, but in that, the hounding of the glass says it all. It’s beautifully done." - Mike Bennie (The Wine Front)

A unique parcel within Rippon, Tinker's Field is a gentle, north facing slope formed by an ancient ejection cone of coarse schist gravels. Tinker's Field is home to the oldest vines on the property and is named after Rippon's visionary founder, Rolfe Mills (Tink to his friends), and the land that he had dreamed of farming since childhood.
Form and feel: Layered, detailed, compressed power, precise, unforced masculinity.

Price Bracket $101 and Above
Type Red
Body Medium Bodied
Variety Pinot Noir
Country New Zealand
Region Central Otago
Feature Biodynamic
Cult
High Score
Natural/Lo-Fi
Organic
Reviewed By James Suckling
The Wine Front
Critic Score 99
96
95
Size 750ml
Vintage 2020
Closure DIAM Cork

Rippon

Rippon Vineyard is one of the most breathtaking sites in Central Otago.

For over a century the Mills family has farmed this small patch of earth on the banks of Lake Wanaka. Nick Mills is the fourth generation of his family to walk the rows on Rippon. He now farms the site according to biodynamic principles.

The Mills family and Rippon are intrinsically linked. There's a deep connection to the land which Nick translates into their superlative wines.

Pinot Noir, Gamay, Riesling and Gewürztraminer all excel at Rippon. The wines are made with patience and love.

In the wines of Rippon, you can sense everything that is transcendent about terroir-driven winemaking where the story of a place is told through the wines it produces.

The bucolic Rippon Vineyard - Central Otago, NZ Rippon

Others also liked

Recently viewed

Shipping

Delivery is free on orders of $150 or more!

For orders under this amount, delivery is calculated at checkout based on your postcode. You can order in any quantity or combination of wines you like. Straight dozens are not required.

We will dispatch your order the same or next business day.

Estimated delivery transit time varies depending on your location. Please review this page for specific estimates.

Sydney (Our Vans): If no one is home and there are no special delivery instructions our driver will try to call for instructions. If the driver believes there is a safe space to leave your wine they will do so if not, they will return the item to us and hold your order until further instruction from you. 

Melbourne (Anonymous Wine Freight): If no one is home and there are no special delivery instructions, the courier will try to call for instructions. If the driver believes there is a safe space to leave your wine they will do so. if not, they will return the item to their dispatch centre and hold until further instruction from you.

Australia Post: Australia Post will leave the parcel if they have been given authority to leave and it is deemed safe to do so. To give your Authority to Leave, please enter this in the 'SPECIAL REQUEST' box at checkout.

Ordering

We want Different Drop customers to always be getting the best price. If you see a lower price elsewhere, just get in touch and we will sort it out for you. We handle all our price-matching on a case by case basis.

Some things to keep in mind: 

  • Retrospective price-matching is available for 30 days after you have purchased from us.
  • The price match cannot be used in conjunction with a coupon or one-off deal we are offering. The idea is for you to get the best price in the market so if that is already achieved through a coupon then we won't price match on top of that.
  • We don't price match clearance or fire sales.
  • We’ll match the listed price as long as it is a legitimate offer and the competing store is actually able to fulfil the order (they have stock or more stock is en route). Essentially we won't price match cheeky vendors listing wines they have no hope of actually getting for you...
  • It must be a publicly listed price. We won't match a price that has been achieved through a coupon/cash-back arrangement, or through a non-advertised offer over the phone or otherwise.  
  • It is limited to a reasonable retail quantity.

We'll treat each price match request on its merit and reserve the right to refuse where we deem fit. For example, particularly rare wines, from non-trust-worthy vendors, in circumstances we deem illegitimate or if we feel our policy is being unfairly taken advantage of.

At the end of the day, we'll look after you and use common sense to ensure you're getting the best price, please just don't take the p%$$!

No, feel free to mix it up! There is no minimum requirement. You can order wines in any quantity or combination, 1 or 50+ bottles.

We stock three different sized gift boxes (single, three bottle and six), all are available for purchase for a flat rate of $8. They look great and make an awesome impression.

To add a gift box to your order, simply add at checkout. The special requests box is your friend, please give us as many details of what you are looking for and we will try our best, or get in contact to discuss it with you. 

If you want to bulk order gifts or if you have any trouble please email hello@differentdrop.com or call and we can try and help.

 

If you can't add more wine to your cart it means we are low on stock of that wine. For example, if you are only able to 3 bottles and no more that means we only have 3 bottles left of that wine. If it's a must have, please contact us and we may be able to order more in for you.

Call Us

Send a message