Riposte is an entirely family owned and run boutique winery. Tim, Dale and Nick form a close-knit team that is guided by the winemaking philosophy to be ‘hands on’ at every stage from vineyard to bottle. Each vineyard site is carefully selected for quality and its suitability for producing varietal character. Tim and son Nick work closely with the growers at every stage, ensuring grapes are picked at the optimum stage of ripeness, vibrancy and freshness.

The grapes for The Sabre are from some of the oldest and best sited Pinot Noir vineyards in the high cool climate Lenswood and Piccadilly sub-regionsof the Adelaide Hills. We work with our growers to produce moderate yields of fruit, well exposed to sunlight to maximise colour and ripe flavours.

Stylish and complex, the enticing bouquet shows dark plum, raspberry, warm spice, mushroom and toasted almond characters, leading to a wonderfully weighted palate offering fleshy texture, backed by finely infused tannins, finishing persistent and elegant. Gorgeously poised and harmonious with seductive complexity. At its best: now to 2033. Date: Oct 2024; Rating: 95 Points; Wine Orbit

From the very first, this wine reveals a compelling and engaging combination of nuances and complex characters. The nose opens with a truffle and mushroom-like aroma with subtle meaty touches delving into the primary cherry characters. The palate is layered and textured but with a fine thread of sustained acidity holding the line. Integrated oak and fruit captured perfectly as it gathers through to a long finish. Date: March 2025; Price: $39.00; Drink by: 2025-2033; Rating: 93 Points; Ray Jordan

This is the next step up from the team in their Pinotsphere, and while it is already drinking beautifully, putting this away in the cellar while drinking the current Dagger would work. Made from a range of clones which are all vinified discretely, the vineyards are located at Lenswood and Piccadilly in the Adelaide Hills. The individual components then spent time in French oak barrels, one quarter of them new, whereupon a barrel selection was made before the final blending. A very pale garnet hue, this is constructed in a more savoury style with hints of warm earth, florals, dry herbs, undergrowth and delicatessen meats. There is early complexity already evident and the wine is linear in structure with good focus, satiny tannins and bright acidity. Enjoy this over the next six to eight years. Date: Dec 2024; Price: $39.00; Drink by: 2024-2032; Rating: 93 Points; Ken Gargett

The 2023 The Sabre Pinot Noir is all cherries and exotic spice, with lean, leafy characters on the mid-palate. This is a complex wine of presence and finesse, but with the 2024 Dagger so fresh in my mind, I can't help searching for some of that perfectly ripe, concentrated and yet capacious fruit that I tasted there. This is undoubtedly more complex and has cherry pip, aniseed, clove and iodine, so gravitate to what makes you sing. Date: March 2025; Drink: 2025-2033; Rating: 92 Points; Erin Larkin; Robert Parker's The Wine Advocate

Sourced from six Pinot clones grown in the elite Hills districts of Lenswood and Piccadilly Valley, each clone vinified separately and matured in French barrels, 25% new, finally undergoing barrel selection of the best 85% of the wine before final blending. What results is gently floral, red cherry toned and softly spiced. A faint note of char reminds you of the well figured oak regime, with a subtle grippiness in the finish noting that this is a well-intentioned, clear-sighted Pinot that is focused on purity of expression. Date: Nov 2024; Price: $39.00; Rating: 93 Points; Tony Love

Adelaide Hills Pinot is in its element, glistening in red-red hues and carrying a lively perfume of red cherry, cranberry, earthy rhubarb, musk and pressed flowers. It’s quite a compact, lightly savoury, herbal-red berried, sinewy-tight pinot, pretty typically Hills Pinot in character despite this being one heck of a nerve-wracking kind of vintage. There was rain, lots of it. No matter, The Sabre cut through it all and arrives on the other side vivacious and delicious to boot. The palate explores dried herbs with rose hip, cranberry and cherry fruits in tow. The structure is interesting, it’s sinewy and earthy, dressed in savoury tannins. Finishes with some smooth vanillin oak. Moderate cellaring could be called for. Date: Nov 2024; Price: $39.00; Drink by: 2024-2032; Rating: 92 Points; Jeni Port