The team at Rippon Vineyard has welcomed news that the Rippon mature vine pinot noir 2017 has been named Champion Pinot Noir at the Aotearoa Organic Wine Awards.

“We’re stoked with this recognition,” Rippon’s Nick Mills said.

The Aotearoa Organic Wine Awards were established as a means of finding and celebrating Zealand’s best certified organic wines with a goal of increasing the market share of organic

wine in New Zealand, and helping consumers to easily find and select a quality organic wine.

“The vineyard has been organic from the very first days of our parents’ planting in the early 1980s and we are fully committed to caring for the farm organically and biodynamically,” Nick said.

“Our primary focus with this is looking after the land and the soil but an added bonus lies in the glass: a wine that is true to its home, grown with profound love and respect for the land and all the life that lies within it.”

Organic vineyards currently make up just over 10 per cent of the New Zealand’s plantings and that figure is growing year on year.

“Just as we are seeing an increasing consumer desire to know where their food choices come from, so too are we seeing an interest in drinkers wanting to know where their wines come from, how they’re grown and how they’re made,” Nick said.

“It is fantastic to see New Zealand wineries responding to this with ever increasing numbers turning to organic farming.”

PHOTO: Supplied