Cuvée Aux Antipodes Blanc 2022

White Wine of the Year NZ 2025 winner

96 ★★★★★
After much discussion the panel was unanimous on selecting this outstanding chardonnay as our White Wine of the Year. It shows the consummate skill of a winemaker keen to explore the potential of a great site. A thrilling and exciting wine.

Real Review Awards panel judge, Jane Skilton MW

This Chardonnay is a collaboration between Prophet’s Rock winemaker Paul Pujol and esteemed French winemaker François Millet from Chambolle-Musigny, Burgundy. Former winemaker at Comte George de Vogüé for 35 vintages, François continues to make wine in Burgundy with his family under ‘François Millet et Fils’ and with us in New Zealand.

This wine is the reflect of the Clutha River flowing just below, mineral, transparent and luminous. There is nothing exotic, “artificial” or “made up” about the expression of this wine. That shows again the link between what is emanating from the land, the feeling you have from it and the expression of the wines.

François Millet

The nose opens with beautiful white floral aromas, white peach and mandarin. The palate continues the white peach, and orange citrus, backed up with notes of brioche and macadamia – supported with a subtle lick of and well- integrated oak. The wine has a backbone of stoney acidity and oyster shell-like minerality, tying everything together, and leading to a long and graceful finish.

Cellaring: Decant for full expression in its youth and cellar with confidence for 10+ years from vintage.

Since the first release in 2018, this wine has been sourced exclusively from the small one-hectare Chardonnay block on our Kopuwai Delta vineyard, located in the Pisa sub- region of Central Otago. This site has a mix of glacial and alluvial soil. Meticulous viticulture and the site’s low elevation help to ensure full ripeness and concentration.

A strong focus on viticulture is the foundation of the winemaking approach. Yields are consistently managed to 25-30hl/ha or approximately 3.5-4ton/ha.

All elements of the winemaking are directed by François who has formed a consistent approach to this parcel since 2018. The handpicked fruit is whole-bunch pressed and fermented in barrel using only indigenous ‘wild’ yeast. The wine then spends 17 months in barrel (16% new) and undergoes indigenous malolactic fermentation.

Cool start to spring. Our first month of ‘summer’ was not especially hot, however January brought very dry and warm weather. As far as vintages go, everything was rather straightforward, no weather events to disrupt plans, amazing fruit and flavours and easy ferments. Right from the start the wines showed a lovely depth of flavour and concentration, bright aromatics, and good structure.

  • Alcohol 13.0%
  • Only 23 barrels were made.
  • Harvest dates: 15 & 24 March 2022
  • Bottling date: 6 October 2023
  • The wine is bottled under Diam cork.
  • Bottle weight 565 g (unfilled).