Why it matters
The producer
Rippon Vineyard & Winery is a Mills family property on Lake Wānaka’s western shore, where four generations have farmed since 1912. The family’s work as winegrowers began in 1982, and Pinot Noir now carries the clearest thread from that land into bottle: a grape shown through estate, village, named-block and mature-vine wines rather than one generic Central Otago red.
Rolfe Mills and his wife Lois returned to the family farm in Wānaka in 1973. Rather than move straight to a single commercial grape, Rolfe planted trial rows of 30 varieties in 1975; the first Rippon vineyard block followed in 1982. That sequence left Pinot Noir as a considered planting on a long-farmed property, not a crop added to an already finished estate.
Place and vineyards
Where the wines begin
Rippon’s Pinot Noir grows beside Lake Wānaka, with the Southern Alps in view across the water. Wānaka sits within Central Otago, New Zealand’s continental wine region; its mountain setting brings strong light and long sunshine hours, while the lake softens the local growing conditions. For Pinot Noir, that combination points towards ripeness without abandoning acidity, so the wines can hold fruit, tannin and freshness together.
The ground under Tinker’s Field is an ancient ejection cone of coarse schist gravels on a gentle north-facing slope. Schist gravel drains freely, and the north-facing aspect gives the Pinot Noir direct light; the result is a parcel selected for a more concentrated, firmer-framed expression than a broad estate blend.
In the cellar
Vineyards and cellar
Rippon’s biodynamic work includes estate composting, a practical way of returning organic material to the vineyard. In Pinot Noir, vineyard care matters because the grape’s thin skins supply both fragrance and tannin; sound, evenly ripened fruit lets the cellar keep the wine dry and structured without relying on heavy extraction.
For the 2022 Tinker’s Field, fruit was fermented with resident yeasts, each parcel was fermented and matured separately before blending, and the wine was bottled without fining or filtration. It spent 28 days on skins, then 18 months in French oak, beginning with 21% new barrels before a second winter in neutral wood. The approach leaves room for red fruit, spice and earthy detail while building tannin and length rather than overt oak sweetness.
Wines to know
The range in view
The Pinot Noir range moves through young-vine, estate, village and Emma’s Block bottlings to Tinker’s Field Mature Vine Pinot Noir. The names are useful signals: some wines gather fruit from a wider part of the property, while Emma’s Block and Tinker’s Field narrow the focus to a named place. Across that structure, Pinot Noir can shift from supple red-fruit drinking to firmer tannin, darker savoury notes and more weight.
Tinker’s Field occupies the mature-vine end of the range. Its vines were planted between 1982 and 1989, and its coarse-schist slope supplies the physical setting for a dry Pinot Noir with more compression and grip. Emma’s Block offers another mature-vine parcel perspective; the estate and young-vine wines show the grape before that site-specific concentration becomes the main point.
A useful way in
A bottle to begin with
Choose the 2022 Rippon Tinker’s Field Mature Vine Pinot Noir. It comes from vines planted between 1982 and 1989 on a gentle north-facing slope of coarse schist gravel, linking one bottle directly to Rippon’s earliest vineyard years. Expect a dry, medium-bodied Pinot Noir with wild berries, violet, spice, damson plum, forest-floor savour and long, silky tannin. Its 18 months in French oak give the wine breadth, while the acidity and mineral grip keep the finish firm.