2022 Rippon Rippon Mature Vine Riesling, Central Otago

The 2022 Mature Vine Riesling is spicy and exotic on the nose, with sandalwood and saffron, layers of preserved citrus, cheesecloth, pear drop, green apple and brine. In the mouth, the wine is texturally soft and open-weave, with a plush, plump palate of cold buttered toast and apple skins. Complex and kaleidoscopic. 12.5% alcohol, sealed under Diam. The vineyard was planted in 1987 to 2000, mostly on its own roots. The vines are unirrigated, biodynamically farmed and hand-harvested. The grapes are crushed underfoot and the skins soaked for 24 hours, then everything is pressed and fermented using ambient wild ferments in the lie-down fermenters, with no adjustments, and then it stays on lees unsulfured for three months. A small "sweet aromatic reserve" is pulled out early and fermented cold, kept with some residual sugar and then added back in prior to bottling. This 2022 has about 12 grams per liter of residual sugar. 

93 points Erin Larkin robertparker.com

Pale gold. A reductive nose with noticeable sulfides over sunny, ripe stone-fruit and decadent manuka honey. The palate also exhibits some hard edges at this stage - very young and still awkward - but the wine underneath has a gentle and confident power with juicy fruit and a lush texture before the phenolics and reduction close in on the end with astringency. Give it a few years and it should come right: there is enough stuffing and density here to still provide a decade of enjoyment after that 19 JAN 2024 Drink 2026–2036

95 points Stephen Wong MW therealreview.com

A warm & productive summer put plenty of flesh on this wine. The fruit is issued from Rippon’s mature vines, whose root hairs have invaded the schist rock below. 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.