2013 Prophet’s Rock Retrospect Pinot Noir – Rating 95 Points
Reviewed by Joe Czerwinski
Issue Date: 1st Mar 2018
Source: 235, The Wine Advocate
Released five years after the vintage, there are 736 bottles of the 2013 Retrospect Pinot Noir, which comes from a single parcel of clone 5 (Pommard). It’s deep, dark and chocolaty, rich and dense with concentrated black cherry fruit. It’s medium to full-bodied, with a velvety mouthfeel and a long, potent finish.
Proprietor-winemaker Paul Pujol has emerged as one of Central Otago’s latest stars, based out of the estate vineyards in the Bendigo subregion. The first plantings in 1999-2000 consisted of seven hectares of Pinot Noir and a half hectare of Pinot Gris. The Rocky Point vineyard, planted in 2004, added 16 hectares of Riesling, Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir. From 2000-2002, Pujols worked at Kuentz-Bas in Alsace, which informed his attitudes toward Pinot Gris and Riesling. He’s also spent time at Domaine Comte de Vogué in Chambolle-Musigny. The winemaker there, François Millet, now makes a Pinot Noir under the Prophet’s Rock label.