Cuvée Aux Antipodes Pinot Noir 2023

This wine 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. Since the first release in 2015, this wine has been sourced exclusively from the same parcel on our small Home Vineyard site up in the hills of Bendigo sub- region, Central Otago.

2022 Vintage, 97 Points.
The wine is tightly wound and floral, with violets, crushed rocks, tapenade, apple skins, blood orange and black tea. It is mineral and balanced and ultimately an incredibly pretty view of Pinot Noir. There’s a Campari-esque minerality here—think dehydrated orange peel, hints of amaro/rosemary/arnica and exotic spice.
It’s a ripper. Beautiful wine.

Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate

Bright ruby in colour, the complex nose unfolds slowly with dusty boysenberry, deep rose florals, dried herb, and forest floor notes. The palate shows red fruits including cherry, blood orange, violets, and anise notes. The palate has real presence without being heavy, a frame of fine tannin carries the flavours elegantly to a very long finish. This wine demands time to explore and decanting is recommended for full expression.

With food this vintage marries well with game birds, lamb and venison dishes, the presence and brightness will highlight rather than dominate the cuisine.

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

The vineyard sits on a high elevation (320 – 390m), steep glacial terrace high above the valley floor. The site features some of the oldest vineyard soils in the valley with the formation of the terrace occurring approximately 650K years ago. The soil age and dry Central Otago climate have combined to create the unusual clay and pedogenic lime soil structure. Beneath layers of clay at a depth of 50-80cm sits a thick layer of chalk.

The 7.5ha site was prepared and planted between 1999-2001 and the parcel of Pinot Noir for this wine is a single clone at the western end of the steep front face. Full organic certification (Biogro) was completed prior to the 2018 vintage.

A strong focus on viticulture is the foundation of the winemaking approach. Yields are consistently managed to 30-35hl/ha or approximately 4ton/ha.

All elements of the winemaking are directed by François who has formed a consistent approach to this parcel since 2015. The handpicked fruit is destemmed and fermented using only indigenous ‘wild’ yeast. A key feature of our vinification is extremely low extraction, all our small open top tanks are only hand-plunged once during fermentation. The wine then spends 17 months in barrel (30% new) and undergoes indigenous malolactic fermentation.

Mild finish to winter, stable spring with no frost. Regular rainfall through November, fruit set in December when the weather was warm and dry. January and February were warm and very dry until late February when the weather cooled. March was mild but not hot, with only five days reaching 25°C early in the month. From the middle of March until the end of harvest in April, the weather remained stable allowing us the flexibility to pick on flavour and ripeness. The grapes held good acidity, and the resulting wines have a great balance of freshness along with ripe flavours and good structure.

  • Alcohol 12.5%
  • Only 13 barrels were made.
  • Harvest dates: Early April 2023
  • Bottling date: 6 November 2024
  • The wine is bottled under Diam cork.
  • Bottle weight 545 g (unfilled).

2021 96 points. On the nose, the wine is fresh and so detailed, with spiced cherry, tapenade, dried herbs, hints of alpine mint, red apple skins and black tea. In the mouth, the wine is balanced and exciting, herbal and fresh, with layers of texture and 􀀁flavor that are difficult to separate. This is first rate, a thrilling wine, powerful and long but nuanced. Erin Larkin

2021 Smoky oak and earthy spice complexity are just starting to show on this muscular and brooding black-fruited wine. The deep flavours are concentrated but still primary, with firm, sleek tannins which remain tight and unyielding. Powerful and dense, this will slowly unfurl in the coming years, but with a cooler-vintage austerity which will result in a more elegant wine in the long term. Stephen Wong