“Alluring to the point of thrilling.” - The Wine Advocate, 97+ points

“Starts slow but is worth the wait. Complex aromatics, with dark plums, black cherry, waxy notes, dried rose petal, wild thyme, peaty earth.” - Decanter. 97 points

“One of the star wineries of Central Otago.” - Jamie Goode

We live on a big planet, but there are very few places where Pinot Noir feels truly at home and lives its best life. In the northern hemisphere, there’s Burgundy, of course, as well as Oregon, some of the cooler parts of northern California and Canada, Baden in Germany, isolated spots in Austria and the Alto Adige in Italy. In the southern hemisphere, there’s Tasmania, Victoria, the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, Marlborough and Central Otago and I’m already starting to run out of examples.

It’s a fickle, capricious grape, but when its needs are met, it makes the most wonderful wines, each with their very own sense of place, but I don’t think any Pinot Noir from those places mentioned above, including Burgundy, are so easily identifiable as those from Central Otago on New Zealand’s South Island. They seem to have a slightly darker character, a wet hedgerow-fruit quality, like blackberries after a rain shower, or the incarnadine liquor that oozes from a summer pudding, This example, from Prophet’s Rock, is as defiantly Central Otago as you could wish for, it’s not trying to emulate a red Burgundy, it’s true to itself and is an utterly beguiling cocktail of blackcurrants, raspberries, redcurrants and blueberries, laced with a little baking spice to mollify the sharper fruits. Drink it with salmon teriyaki, a toasted turkey sandwich, crispy aromatic duck or barbecued baby-back ribs. 13% alc. Drink now-2038.

NB Winemaker, Paul Pujol, worked at Domaine Comte Georges de Vogüé in Chambolle, developing a friendship with its winemaker, François Millet, who now consults at Prophet’s Rock.

Press reviews:

The Wine Advocate: “The 2023 Home Vineyard Pinot Noir is grown on a pocket of pedogenic limestone, clay and schist. The wine is possessed of a mineral presence that is alluring to the point of thrilling, with a mineral seam of tannin that runs from the front to the back of the palate and out into the long finish. It draws the fruit flavour along with it, meaning I am left with a textural linger of flavour and shape long after the wine has gone. The wine is eminently red fruited and spiced, with raspberry seed, sweet pouch tobacco, crushed rocks, iodine in small measure, dried herbs and brine. The finish is almost as good as the lead-in, all elements of the wine working together in a swirl of cooperation and harmony. The beauty of the 2023s from Central Otago (and the South Island generally) has dawned on me, after tasting a huge number of them over the past six months. It wasn't presented as a vintage I should watch out for; rather, the wines speak for themselves. They have energy, detail, poise and life. The extraction management in the winery is extremely specific and sparing, meaning the tannins that we live with here in the glass are mostly vineyard-derived, and what is better than that? This is chalky, chewy and pliable, and the tannins are elongating and lengthening. 13% alcohol. Drink now-2043.” 97+ points

Decanter: “Starts slow but is worth the wait. Complex aromatics, with dark plums, black cherry, waxy notes, dried rose petal, wild thyme, peaty earth; not the easiest to tease out the wine's individual components. A mouthfilling, compact and very textural palate with abundant, ripe tannins. Pretty tightly wound now but the fruit concentration and super-length speak of good things to come.” 97 points

 The Australian Wine Companion: “It's a beautiful vineyard, this one. It's high, some 320–390m on a glacial terrace above Bendigo, on some of the oldest soils in the region, composed of clay and pedogenic limestone. Mid-ruby in the glass. Exotically spiced wild strawberry and raspberry fruits with a blast of cherry and hints of meadow herbs, sous bois, lightly smoked meats, earth, citrus blossom and dried rinds, poached rhubarb, lavender and crushed stone. Some biscuity oak and nutmeg on the palate, which shows a pleasing fruit weight and spicy vapour trail carried by a vivid mineral line onwards into the distance. Such great drinking.” 96 points

JancisRobinson.com (previous vintage): “Smells of stony cherry, raspberry and road dust. Powdery tannins coat the mouth and surround flavours of raspberry and sour cherry – bright with excellent acidity. Faint notes of herbs and redcurrant linger through the stony finish. Beautifully textured and wonderfully mineral. Will age fantastically. Outstanding.” 18 points