Prophet’s Rock Dry Riesling 2024

2024 is an absolute classic vintage for our small, steep parcel of Riesling. The exuberant, intricate aromatics unfold in the glass to reveal jasmine and honeysuckle, key lime, lemon zest, and spice notes. The palate has a wonderful tension, texture, and very long length. Notes of citrus and stone fruit mix with spice, all carried by structured, detailed precision and freshness. This is a wine that will evolve through an evening, showing more of its underlying aromatics and layers of flavour. Extended cellaring will reward collectors with even more complexity over the long term.   

This wine represents a very small portion of our overall production but has always been a strong focus for Prophet’s Rock. We farm our aromatic whites to the same high standard in the vineyard as our top Pinot Noir, and take time through all aspects of production to ensure that the wine we release is the best reflection of the site it can be.

2023 95 Points, Stephen Wong MW
Ripe and honeyed yet elegant, this is a concentrated, off-dry Riesling with tangelo and sweet apple flavours, verging on the exotically tropical with mango appearing on the finish. The rounded, almost creamy texture is brought into sharp focus by the bracing acidity underneath, allowing hints of baking spice and grainy pear-like phenolics to take hold on towards the back. It finishes drier than it starts, with a long life ahead 10 Dec 2025

2022 94 Points, Stephen Wong MW
A taut acid spine of citrus and green apple streaks through the middle of this light-weight, off-dry Riesling. The flavours are restrained, distinctly cool-climate with a low-intervention lift which softens to honey and lemon curd on the off-dry but tangy finish. An edgy, mineral style with citrus and herbal flavours lingering right to the end, this will develop toasty complexity over the mid-term

2021 96 Points, Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate
Instead of appearing overtly spicy and “of oak,” the fruit leads with preserved citrus, yuzu, brine, white flowers and wet limestone. In the mouth, the wine is softly framed and chalky, with a gentle cloth-y texture and white tea phenolics through the finish. Taut, a little febrile, and totally layered, this is exciting drinking now and a magnificent cellaring proposition for the next couple of decades. It’s worth mentioning that I believe this wine to be insanely underpriced for the quality and site-specific eloquence that it offers. Call it a gem from the New World.

We have a little over two hectares of Riesling which is located on our spectacular Rocky Point Vineyard. This very steep site has schist-based soil with high mineral content and low vigour. The Riesling block has a northerly aspect with large rafts or slabs of solid schist throughout. A strong focus on viticulture is the foundation of the winemaking approach. Yields consistently average 28-30hl/ha or approximately 3.5-4ton/hl. In the vineyard this often equates to one bunch maximum per shoot, no shoulders or wings, and a further green-thin at veraison.

The handpicked fruit is 100% whole-bunch pressed over 5-6 hours and fermented using only indigenous ‘wild’ yeast in old barrels. Fermentation typically takes 3-4 months, and the finished wine is then aged without racking on gross lees until bottling just before the following vintage. The wine is only released after at least one year in bottle.

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 13.5%
  • Only 18 barrels were made.
  • Harvest dates: 17 April 2023
  • Bottling date: 5 February 2024
  • The wine is bottled under Diam cork.
  • Bottle weight 560 g (unfilled)