2024 Riposte, The Pinot Noir, Adelaide Hills, South Australia

I have known Tim Knappstein for longer than I care to mention. He is a pioneer and inspiration, an extremely generous man with his time and wine, and he is one of a group of Aussie titans who have helped shape my understanding, admiration and intense enjoyment of fine Aussie wine over the last four decades. His son, Nick, is my point of contact with their fabulous winery in the Hills, and when he offered to send me a very special bottle of his very own En Primeur Riposte Pinot, I was overjoyed to accept. In Nick’s words, “2024 marked Tim’s 63rd consecutive vintage, an almost goldilocks year for Pinot Noir in the Adelaide Hills with low crop levels and a long, gentle ripening period.  Without bullshit or hyperbole, this year produced the best parcels of Pinot Noir fruit we have seen in 20 years. To celebrate an exceptional year and Tim’s winemaking career, we wanted to produce something very special: three barriques of what we believe to be the finest expression of 2024 Adelaide Hills Pinot Noir. The wine will not be released onto the market as part of the established range. It will be sold by preorder and released on the 22nd of October 2025, which is not coincidentally Dad’s 80th birthday.”

As I mentioned above, the two Pinots I am thrilled to feature this week are truly awe-inspiring, and this wine lives up to and, to my mind at this stage of its evolution in barrel, perhaps eclipses any other Pinot I have tasted from the Adelaide Hills. In a global context, this is a staggering tour de force for a man and his son to stand alongside, no doubt busting with pride while remembering all the blood, sweat and tears expended in pursuit of their winemaking dreams. As you will know, I do not award scores to unfinished wines outside of my annual EP bonanzas, and I feel there is more to come during this wine’s élévage, but suffice it to say, this is a near-perfect drop right now, so you can expect to see a glass ceiling shattered come its release in ten months. In terms of its perfume, flavour and deportment, I apologise for using Burgundy tropes to inform you of its character, as there are precious few wines to compare it to in the world outside of the Cóte d’Or. Masterful in every respect, Like the Mt. Lord above, much of the action is hidden from view on first tasting. The aromatics are sensational, hinting at a much darker palette of fruit notes than Knappstein’s portfolio Pinots. The oak is firm, buttressing the flanks of flavour but stopping short of intruding on the majestic waves of fruit. From a textural perspective, we enter a different sphere altogether. Where one might expect trademark silkiness and gloss, the flavours retain immense succulence while adding epic skin and earth striations, giving it an unmistakable Adelaide Hills identity and a subterranean glimpse into the elemental engine room that powers the root systems for these vines. It’s like watching a blockbuster and then being given an access-all-areas pass to see behind the scenes and meet the cast. Goodness knows what will happen in the final months of its slumber in oak, but my first impressions are unshakable. Tim and Nick have done what they have set out to achieve: to make a wine that sums up the integrity and determination of this family in just one bottle. Chapeau.

Matthew Jukes
15 January 2025

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