Prophets Rock Home Vineyard Pinot Noir 2023

The foundation of this wine is our focus on delivering low-yielding concentrated fruit that expresses our vineyard. In the winery, we employ traditional old world techniques; the grapes are handled gently, and the wines are fermented using only the indigenous yeast from the vineyard. The wines are aged in barrel for 15-18 months before being bottled unfiltered and are cellared before release. Since the first release in 2005, the Prophet’s Rock Pinot Noir has consistently been one of the best-reviewed Pinot Noirs in New Zealand. Cellaring will reward collectors over the next 10+ years from vintage. PR

The grapes were sourced from the Home Vineyard on the impressive North-facing slopes of Chinaman’s Terrace, located in the Bendigo sub-region of Central Otago. Planted in 1999/2000 and will be certified organic from the 2019 vintage. Starts at 325 meters above sea level, rising up to 400 meters. Northwest exposition. This stunning site has soil featuring clay and chalk mixed with schist and quartz.

97 Pts Erin Larkin, the Wine Advocate 'The 2023 Home Vineyard Pinot Noir is grown on a pocket of pedogenic limestone, clay and schist. The wine is possessed of a mineral presence that is alluring to the point of thrilling, with a mineral seam of tannin that runs from the front to the back of the palate and out into the long finish. It draws the fruit flavor along with it, meaning I am left with a textural linger of flavor and shape long after the wine has gone. The wine is eminently red fruited and spiced, with raspberry seed, sweet pouch tobacco, crushed rocks, iodine in small measure, dried herbs and brine. The finish is almost as good as the lead-in, all elements of the wine working together in a swirl of cooperation and harmony. The beauty of the 2023s from Central Otago (and the South Island generally) has dawned on me, after tasting a huge number of them over the past six months. It wasn't presented as a vintage I should watch out for; rather, the wines speak for themselves. They have energy, detail, poise and life. The extraction management in the winery is extremely specific and sparing, meaning the tannins that we live with here in the glass are mostly vineyard-derived, and what is better than that? This is chalky, chewy and pliable, and the tannins are elongating and lengthening. 13% alcohol, sealed under Diam'

The Prophet's Rock operation based at Bendigo produces wines that are distinctively European in character. One must taste and drink them with a perspective of a vigneron in the Rheingau, Riquewihr or in Pommard to appreciate their style. Mike Mulvey set up the label based on fruit from two sites, one in Pisa, the other in Bendigo, in 1999. The arrival of Paul Pujol as winemaker with experience including Alsace, Burgundy and Oregon has cemented the international outlook of the vineyard, winery and the wines. RAYMOND CHAN, raymondchanwinereviews.co.nz