PROPHET’S ROCK SOPHORA PINOT NOIR 2023

Winery notes (2023 Vintage)
"Sparkling bright ruby in colour. This open and perfumed nose comes through with red fruits, especially raspberry and red cherry, with rose florals unpinned by tea and dusty spices. The red fruits flow through to the palate joined by blood orange, delicate spices, and dried herb notes. The fine-grained tannin melds seamlessly with the fruit flavours leading to an elegant and very long finish, the florals and raspberry have an especially lingering presence. The vibrancy and elegance of this wine pairs especially well with salmon and game birds.

This wine showcases our Kopuwai Delta Vineyard in the Pisa sub-region, Central Otago. This beautiful vineyard sits on a high terrace directly overlooking the Clutha River, at the delta where it runs into Lake Dunstan. Protected by towering mountains on both sides of the valley, this warm site has been shaped by the passage of multiple glaciers. Kopuwai Delta is situated at a narrow point in the valley between the Pisa and Bendigo ranges and lies at 225m elevation. The low vigour, free-draining, very fine schist-based soils feature loess, alluvium, quartz and rounded river stones.

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 11 months in barrel (20% new) and undergoes indigenous malolactic fermentation."

95/100 Erin Larkin, RobertParker.com, Wine Advocate (2023 Vintage)
"This is the first time that this cuvée has been bottled separately, and the vines are grown in very fine schist gravels; the vineyard site has essentially been the recipient of every glacial deposit in the area. The winemaking is mostly the same as the Home and Oleria (Rocky Point) vineyard wine. This vintage sees slightly less time in oak but more time in bottle, but otherwise, it gets the same treatment as the other wines—most particularly, very gentle extraction during fermentation. Aromatically, the 2023 Sophora Pinot Noir is mineral and rocky, with a pure core of pomegranate pearls, pink peppercorn and crushed rocks, with pressed flowers and green olive tapenade as well. The palate is silky and plush, with seamless fruit and phenolic interplay. The whole berry/destemmed fruit is silky and fine. This bears all the hallmarks of the Prophet's Rock Pinot Noir style, viewed here through the lens of the 2023 vintage. It's a beautiful wine. It's good to see the three wines from the three sites here together, as they sort of span the valley."

95/100 James Suckling (2023 Vintage)
"Aromas of dark cherries, wild raspberries, orange peel and lead pencil. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins and vivid acidity, giving notes of blackberries, blood oranges, dried herbs and crushed river-stones. Balanced and bright with a real purity and a mineral edge. The premier release of this new addition to Prophet’s Rock pinots. Drink or hold."

5 Stars & 95/100 Stephen Wong MW, The Real Review (2023 Vintage)
"Subtle, multifarious layers of perfumed complexity from wildflowers and dried herb to raspberry bush and baking spice, all delicately arrayed across the light-weight but energetic palate. Very smooth and silky, the flavours come together towards roasted nuts, oyster-shell minerality and a hint of flint on the back-palate before expanding again with airiness and savoury, mushroomy interest on the finish. A beautifully light and intricate pinot with fascinating flow and delicacy, it’s finely poised and will evolve slowly."

94/100 Emma Jenkins MW, Decanter UK (2023 Vintage)
"A shift in both hue and aromatics, this is more immediately open and expressive than the buttoned-down Bendigo wines, though it’s hardly fruity or opulent. But there are more florals here – boronia and borage – plus bay leaf, waxy strawberries, damson and pomegranate. The palate is quite delicate with fine, sandy tannins, good fruit compaction and a long finish – this is where the wine’s build is. Just 10 barrels were made, so get in quick. Sophora microphylla is the botanical name for the indigenous yellow-flowered weeping kōwhaii tree, beloved of native birds."

94/100 Jamie Goode, WineAnorak.com (2023 Vintage)
"This is from the valley floor on fine schist gravels. Juicy, stony and mineral with bright fruit and nice acidity. A multidimensional wine that’s stony and mineral and shows traces of iodine and blood savouriness."