Prophet’s Rock Pinot Gris 2025
Pinot Gris 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 96 Points, Emma Jenkins MW, Decanter
Very spicy, with ginger, jasmine, ripe pear, waxy honey, quince and yellow peach, wet stones and dried hay, but while there’s intense fruit here, this isn’t a fruity wine; it has a wonderful savoury richness running through the nose and palate. Off-dry with good intensity, a strong acid spine and good use of phenolics to both anchor and balance. Very long and textural. Rich, but not heavy. Evolves beautifully in the glass. Fermented and matured in older oak, on lees.
2022 94 Points, Erin Larkin, The Wine Advocate
…fabulously dry and textural, with crushed rocks, white flowers, hints of nashi pear (and pear drops), white tea and brine in the mouth. The wine flows seamlessly from start to finish and is a complex but silky rendition of the variety. It makes sense that Winemaker Paul Pujol has a good sense of the variety, having worked in Alsace at Maison Kuentz-Bas for three years prior to coming to Prophet’s Rock. Fully matured in old oak, the wine is fresh but also very long and lingering—a sure sign that it has a long future in front of it.
Shining white gold in colour, the vibrant and richly perfumed nose opens with Poire William, white peach, and white rose florals. Cardamon spice, and delicate preserved lemon citrus compliment the pear and stonefruit.
The bright and complex palate opens with pear and white stonefruit, with guava notes and spice. The rich aromatics are supported by a wonderful, structured mouthfeel which carries this wine through to a very long and textured finish balanced with a lot of freshness. This wine unfolds and opens to reveal even more complexity over the course of the bottle.
The texture, freshness and vibrant aromatics make this an extremely versatile food wine, working well with a huge range of food. From shellfish and seafood, through to white meats, spiced dishes, cheeses, and fruit-based deserts.
Cellar with confidence for 10+ years.
Rocky Point, Bendigo, Central Otago (47%); Kopuwai Vineyard, Pisa, Central Otago (49%); Home Vineyard, Bendigo, Central Otago (4%).
The grapes for this wine are hand-picked from our estate vineyards with the predominate source being the Rocky Point Vineyard. This site has warm free- draining, predominantly schist soils with some of the steepest planted blocks in Central Otago.
Extensive canopy and crop management is carried out during the growing season to ensure the grapes attained full physiological ripeness with great concentration, aromatics, and flavour. Yields on all sites are kept very low and do not exceed 38hl/ha or 5t/ha. 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.
2025 was a season that took a while to get into gear before turning on stunning weather in the new year. September through to November were cool with some good rain to get the vines underway in the first two months of the growing season, before a much drier November. December warmed up but was mixed with even a small snowfall on the hills on the 17th. January was the arrival of the golden weather, many hot days and only one rainfall event to interrupt things. February remained stable and dry as did the first half of March. The season then switched to Autumn with temperatures staying in the teens to low twenties through to the last week of April. This provided a very even, gradual ripening period, with picking only disturbed twice by small showers. The vines enjoyed a season where they got rainfall where required and lovely harvest conditions. The fruit and resulting wines have a wonderful purity and freshness with complex vibrant flavours.
- Alcohol 13.5%
- Residual Sugar 11 g/L
- 36 barrels were made.
- Harvest dates: From 27 March to 5 April 2025
- Bottling date: 14 January 2025
- The wine is bottled under Diam cork.
- Bottle weight 560 g (unfilled)