‘I’LL hold it up to the light so you can catch the glint.” The man then turned what looked a big pebble this way and that so I could take a better photo. This is a piece of home, he had said earlier, when he fished it from his backpack to show everybody who had gathered around the table.
That “home” is a wine estate on the banks of Lake Wanaka in Central Otago, New Zealand, one of the most photographed in the world, owing to the incredibly beautiful scenery. The man is Nick Mills, winemaker/owner of Rippon Vineyard. I was one of the fortunate few invited to the tasting of Rippon wines, led by Mills himself. And I was starstruck. By both Mills and the wines.
The wine session was held at Monopole, the glitzy, new watering hole for wine enthusiasts down on C. Palanca Street in Makati. Here, Champagne is de rigueur before one moves on to yet another bottle from the superbly curated selection that fills the soaring floor-to-ceiling cave des vins. Seating is limited to a tight 16 or 17, unless you don’t mind standing around the huge marble table in the center of the room. Cheese, charcuterie and crackers are all you get to eat here, but then again, you came just for the wine—to drink from Zalto stemware, from the Austrian boutique glassware-maker (with a cult following). We have just a couple of those at home, Mills said almost wistfully, looking at the set-up of wineglasses, five per table setting. And we were drinking bubbly too from Zalto flutes, extremely light with super thin rims. But that lightness is deceptive. These wineglasses are tough and dishwasher safe—apart from being mouth-blown, lead-free and resistant to clouding.
“Deceptively light.” The phrase came up again when we tasted the Rippon Sauvignon Blanc 2013, Gewürztraminer 2014 and “Mature Vine” Riesling 2012.
The lightness of the Rippon whites is not to be mistaken for fragility. The wines reminded me of an athlete’s physique—taut, well-chiseled sans flab. The white wines’ aromas and flavors slowly unfurled to a radiant intensity. Mills did not talk so much about the wines as he did about how the soil, climate and the orientation of the different parcels of land in their vineyard affected winemaking at Rippon.
His family has been farming the land for over 100 years and has been making wine for 30 years—a fact signified by the numbers “100/30” on each Rippon wine label. In 1982 his father Rolfe Mills (the third generation of the family) decided to plant the first vines expressly for making premium wine, after he discovered that his property’s schist-based soil was very much similar to that in Portugal’s Douro Valley. The first commercial vintage was released in 1989.
Mills took over the vineyards from his father in 2002, after spending almost five years in Burgundy, working with the likes of Domaine de la Romanée Conti and Domaine Jean-Jacques Confuron. But before gaining recognition for his winemaking skills, Nick was in the limelight as a champion free-style skier and member of the New Zealand Olympic team. A knee injury dashed his dream of representing his country in the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics.
It was in winemaking, thereafter, that Nick shone brightest, winning the critics’ nod for his outstanding wines. Rippon’s limited release offerings, Emma’s Block and Tinker’s Field, are consistent 90+ point scorers on Robert Parker’s list. Both are Pinot Noirs from vines planted on distinct parcels of land on the estate—Emma’s Block defined by clay; Tinker’s Field, home to the oldest vines, marked by coarse schist gravels. The vines reflect their site, resulting in wines that also reflect their sense of place.
We tasted the Emma’s Block Pinot Noir 2012 and the Rippon Mature Vine Pinot Noir 2010. But where there was a denseness in the finish of the Mature Vine Pinot Noir 2010, the Emma’s Block Pinot Noir 2012 ended on a sleek, almost graceful note. I thought there was power, not muscle in those beautiful Pinots.
“The texture of the soil is reflected in the texture of the wines.” Mills again held up the stones he had brought from home. One of those now sits on my table where it sometimes catches the afternoon sun. A precious memento of a winetasting session that absolutely rocked.
One should never pass up the opportunity to taste wine with a winemaker.
VINOFILE
Rippon wines are imported and distributed by Premium Wine Exchange (www.pwxchange.com.ph) at the ground floor of the Smith Bell Building, 2294 Chino Roces Extension, Barangay Magallanes, Makati City, Philippines (812-3823).
Monopole Wine Bar is located at Greenbelt Excelsior, 105 Carlos Palanca Street, Legaspi Village, Makati City (893-9477, www.monopole.com.ph).
