2018 Prophets Rock Cuvee Aux Antipodes Pinot Noir

Its Origins

The Cuvee Aux Antipodes is a collaboration between Burgundy Winemaker Francois Millet (who makes the legendary Comtes de Vogüé wines) and Prophet's Rock in Central Otago. Established in 1999, Prophet’s Rock has become one of New Zealand’s most consistent boutique producers. The name comes from Central Otago’s goldmining pioneers (a physical landmark on a local claim), and the winery has retained an intensely local focus on its original vineyards and terroir - and the varieties that thrive there. Longtime winemaker Paul Pujol carried this ethic back from early work with legendary producers in France, especially in Burgundy, and with Maison Kuentz-Bas in Alsace. Prophet’s Rock maintain deep values of sustainable vineyard management as well as a very European sensibility, allowing wines to express each vintage. While capturing beautiful varietal expression, they pursue in each wine the less obvious - but more satisfying and food orientated - virtues of vinous texture, balance, complexity, and length. In doing so they can achieve an understated depth, harmony, and sometimes extreme age-worthiness that is highly unusual in New Zealand. Their home block is on an elevated site in Bendigo, with the ‘second’ vineyard Rocky Point in Southern Bendigo, on a steep site above lake Dunstan.