The Reviews
2024 Riposte, The Pinot Noir, Adelaide Hills, South Australia
Matthew Jukes
Back in January, I was extremely honoured to be sent a barrel sample of 2024 Riposte THE Pinot Noir. This wine is now bottled, and Tim and his son Nick have very kindly sent me another, now finished, sample.
Retracing Nick’s words about this spectacular wine, “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.”
And now it is bottled, having finished its élévage, I can finish this note I made in January.
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 bursting 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 Côte d’Or. Masterful in every respect, 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.
Today, this wine feels complete. The fringes of flavour that were untucked and unruly six months ago are now ordered, formal, and filed in the appropriate sensory pigeon-holes. It shows more rigour and control than I expected, hinting at a longer life than I recognised in early 2025. THE Pinot Noir embraces the time-honoured rubric of this expressive variety while retaining an indelible sense of decorum. In this respect, it departs from The Sabre’s openness and spontaneity. And this is precisely what you might desire, even if it might seem out of reach, for a wine with this legend. I can assure you it measures up to its promise. Earlier today, I tasted a 16-year-old Mornington Pinot, and it was still fresh, bright and accurate. It is a mistake to think that top-flight Australian Pinot does not have the propensity to age in the same manner as the more powerful and structured red varieties. Given the detail, energy, and distinction exhibited in 2024 Riposte THE Pinot Noir, I do not doubt for a second that it will not make old bones. And not just hanging on either. The engine here will drive this wine forward with confidence and élan. I noted it was near-perfect, and I stand by this thought today. And now it is bottled, I can register my enthusiasm with a score. As I wrote, back in January, Chapeau. GOLD 19.5+/20
Matthew Jukes
30 July 2025
Russ Gallagher
Aromatically captivating from the first swirl: lavender, potpourri and pine forest on a crisp morning, interwoven with delicate wild forest berries, cherry and strawberry leaves. There’s an exotic lift here; dark spice, a whisper of earth and undergrowth that hints at the wine’s profound complexity.
The palate is luscious yet finely poised, built around a core of wild strawberry and red cherry fruit that unfolds with impressive depth and layering. Sublime balance, silky-soft tannins and a shimmering thread of green-bead acidity lift the red fruits beautifully, keeping everything vibrant and alive. The mid-palate is seamless and generous, the finish long, pure and reverberating with energy.
Wine is a living thing; from the vine, surrounded by the birds and bees, through the careful selection of just three exceptional Adelaide Hills vineyards and just three barriques from more than sixty; the finest oak, then into bottle, and finally the glass where it awakens again after its time in the dark.
It’s magical! Vino Masters Score: 98/100
★★★★★ This wine has real gravitas. The Knappstein attention to detail is exquisite, the result of a near-perfect vintage and decades of mastery refined into something truly special.
A wine to celebrate.
Drink now to 2040
Russ Gallagher - Vino Masters – Independent Wine Reviews
28 April 2026
Jeni Port
There is a sentence that stays with the drinker. It is to be found on the back label of this wine and it’s from winemaker, Tim Knappstein. “This is the Pinot I have wanted to make for 35 years.” The temptation is to write it off as a marketing ploy except Knappstein never succumbs to hyperbole, ever. The ’24 vintage created the circumstances for a special, exceptional wine. The Knappstein father-and-son winemakers have delivered. Arrives in solid, deep crimson hues. The scent moves between the spice, the herbals and the enticingly aromatic wrapped in dark berries and plums: allspice, cinnamon, wild herbs, rose petal, violet, fennel and green stemmy leaves. The aroma is positively sexy! The palate is intense, herbal-edged and dark spiced. Layers of flavour are rooted in the soil – earth, beetroot, dried leaves, undergrowth – and tannin-focused, adding a degree of seriousness and, make no mistake, this is definitely one serious Pinot. Runs smoothly, darkly, savoury influenced and with distinction. Super complex. Limited release: 900 bottles produced. 97/100
Jeni Port - Winepilot
22 April 2026
Tony Love
A statement Pinot Noir from veteran winemaker Tim Knappstein and son Nick, establishing the wine, and variety, in the upper echelon of great Australian red wines where we are perhaps more used to seeing Shiraz and Cabernet as the established crowning glories. Clearly, to develop such a wine requires total commitment from vineyard/fruit selection to the most skilled and focused winemaking.
Does 'The' Pinot Noir live up to its ambition, one may ask. Answer: Absolutely.
The depths of colour, within a Pinot spectrum, and aromas, speak volumes: black cherry, cocoa, dark mint, and dried shiitake lift out of the complex of fruit and savoury elements that then settle deeply into the core of the wine, pulsating sweet, dark cherry with satsuma plum like acidity attracting particular notice. Purity above all. It’s now the palate structure states its case even further, some oak spice woven into a glove of sticky tannins, enough to be serious yet pliable for a reverberating finish. The work here - three vineyard selections including blocks at Lenswood and Piccadilly, with just three barrels out of more than 60 making the final cut, is repaid with a Hills Pinot Noir of immense stature. 97/100
Tony Love - Winepilot
15 August 2025
Erin Larkin
This is a pre-bottling sample of a new wine for Riposte, the 2024 'The' Pinot Noir. On the nose, this is drenched in an abundance of spicy red berries, and in the mouth, it has layers of chalky tannin. I am beginning to understand the excitement surrounding the 2024 vintage in parts of South Australia. The intensity of the fruit here is matched and supported by a swathe of tannin that feels fully resolved and pliable, while the length of flavor through the finish tells another story as well about final fruit quality. This is a great wine here, and I'm looking forward to seeing it as a finished product.
Erin Larkin
Robert Parker - The Wine Advocate
14 March 2025
Sam Kim
This is impeccably composed and expressed with dark berry, bouquet garni, smoked meat, star anise, porcini, and toasted almond notes. The palate exhibits exceptional concentration and a seamless flow, wonderfully enhanced by a plush texture and a refined mouthfeel. Tannins are ultra-fine and in abundance, framing the wine beautifully. It’s graceful, sophisticated, and gloriously structured with a seemingly endless finish. Perfectly proportioned and poised, this is a masterpiece. At its best: 2030 to 2044. ★★★★★ 100/100
Sam Kim
Wine Orbit
Huon Hooke
Rated #1 of 19 for 2024 Pinot Noir from Adelaide Hills. Deep red colour with a tint of purple in the meniscus, the bouquet showing leafy undergrowth aromas, tobacco, dark berries and a hint of eucalyptus. The palate is full and generously flavoured, with plenty of weight and tannin to match the intensity of the dark cherry flavours. It's firm but the tannins are good and ripe. This has heaps of potential, although it does have that touch of eucalyptus. The depth of flavour, concentration, and level of extract put it in upper echelon of Aussie pinot noir. 2027 - 2038. Pre bottling. 95/100
Huon Hooke
The Real Review
Max Allen
A veteran Adelaide Hills winemaker, Tim Knappstein of Riposte Wines, the chance to lift pinot noir to it's full potential came in what he calls the "Goldilocks" vintage of 2024. This, Knappstein's 63rd harvest ( he turns 80 in October), was marked by low yields but high-quality grapes, with the kind of balance of sugar and acid and concentration of flavour that winemakers pray for. Once the year's crop was safely in, fermented and filled into over 80 barrels, Knappstein and he winemaker son, Nick, went through each cask, tasting and selecting which would end up in the winery's top pinot, call the Sabre. During this process, three barrels - each containing wine from a different vineyard - stood out from the rest, and the decision was made to blend them to produce a tiny quantity of very specal wine, called 'The' Pinot Noir.
"It's the pinot I have wanted to make for 35 years," says Knappstein. All this extra attention to detail costs money, reflected in the asking price for these wines (particulary the Riposte. High-quality pinots like these also tend, almost by definition, to be produced in tiny quantities. A brooding and firmly structured expression of pinot on first taste that opens to reveal intense dark cherry fruit and dried-herbal complexity with air and time. Will be fascinating to see how this matures in the bottle.
Max Allen
Drinks columnist
