Prophet’s Rock in Conversation with The Real Review

Prophet’s Rock winemaker and general manager Paul Pujol recently sat down with The Real Review to share the story of our vineyards and winemaking philosophy.

Founded in the late 1990s, Prophet’s Rock farms three estate sites in Central Otago’s Bendigo subregion: the Home Vineyard on clay and limestone, Rocky Point on steep schist slopes above Lake Dunstan, and the Kopuwai Delta Vineyard on fine schist gravels in Pisa. Each is farmed organically and at low yields, producing distinct expressions of Pinot Noir that reflect their soils and elevations.

Alongside Pinot Noir, more than a third of our production is white wine. Pinot Gris, Riesling, and Chardonnay are given the same detail as our reds: long, wild fermentations in neutral oak, extended lees contact, and bottle age before release. Paul credits his formative years in Alsace, where he became the first non-family winemaker at Domaine Kuentz-Bas, for our focus on texture and longevity in aromatic whites.

The conversation also explored Prophet’s Rock’s more unusual wines, from the Vin de Paille (a traditional straw wine reimagined for Central Otago) to the long-running Cuvée Aux Antipodes collaboration with François Millet of Chambolle-Musigny.

As Paul explains, “Our goal is transparency. We want the wines to show where they come from, not what we’ve done to them.”