Prophet's Rock Infusion Pinot Noir 2018
- Vintage
- 2018
- Country
- New Zealand
- Region
- Central Otago
- Size
- 750ml
- Grapes
- Pinot Noir
The grapes are hand-picked from one block that sits adjacent to Lake Dunstan on the Rocky Point Vineyard in Bendigo. This block is warm and early ripening, free draining, with predominantly schist soils on a steep northerly-facing slope.
Extensive canopy and crop management is carried out during the growing season to ensure the grapes attained full physiological ripeness with great concentration, aromatics, and flavour. Yields are kept low and do not exceed 38hl/ha or 5t/ha.
The fruit is handpicked early in the morning at low temperatures and destemmed into a small tank. The grapes then ‘infuse’ in the juice, gently extracting colour and flavour over 10-14 days. When the indigenous ‘wild’ ferment is about to start, the tank is pressed to neutral oak barrels for fermentation. After fermentation, the wine in matured on its yeast lees until bottling without going through malolactic fermentation to preserve freshness. The wine is bottled under screw-cap.
Our winemaking aims to be an exercise in understanding and translating our stunning sites into wine as accurately as possible with a minimum of winery signature. This engaging wine has great purity and freshness with lovely structure that makes for versatile food matches. On the vineyard it is our absolute favourite wood-fired pizza wine.
Enjoyable in its youth and developing more savoury complexity over 5-7 years from vintage. - Winemaker's Notes
Prophet's Rock is a winery in the Central Otago region in New Zealand's South Island. The winery is primarily known for producing Pinot Noir alongside Riesling, Pinot Gris and a dessert wine.
The winery was founded in 1999 and predominantly uses two key vineyards, the Prophet's Rock Home Vineyard and Rocky Point. Although both are based on steep slopes, the Home Vineyard is a medley of schist, clay and chalk, while Rocky Point is stony with steep slopes.
The estate has a strong association with France. Owner and winemaker Paul Pujol, though a New Zealander, has worked in the Languedoc, Sancerre, Burgundy and Alsace. The latter two were especially influential in his approach.
Furthermore, the key winemaking decisions for the Cuvée Aux Antipodes Pinot Noir are made by Francois Millet, the eminent winemaker of Comte Georges de Vogüé. The wine has a more pronounced tannic backbone than Pujol's range topping Retrospect bottling.
The Infusion bottling is another rather unusual wine. It is lighter and brighter than many Pinot Noirs from the region and can be drunk lightly chilled. - Information from Wine Searcher