Prophet’s Rock Home Vineyard Pinot Noir 2021

The grapes were sourced from the Home Vineyard on the impressive North-facingslopes of Chinaman’s Terrace, located in the Bendigo sub-region of Central Otago.Planted in 1999/2000 and will be certified organic from the 2019 vintage. Starts at325 meters above sea level, rising up to 400 meters. North West exposition. Thisstunning site has soil featuring clay and chalk mixed with schist and quartz. Tounderstand the soil type here it’s important to know how the Cromwell Basin wasformed.The site is a mixture of Clay and Limestone. The terrace was formed/carved by aglacier, 650,000 years ago. Then a second Glacier came 400,000 years ago to formfurther topography changes. Due to the first Glacier creating the first terrace theschist mother rock was left exposed on the top soil. Schist weathers and decomposesbecoming fine particles, eventually Clay. Calcium particles within this Schist werereleased during this decomposition. Because there is Clay it stopped the calciumbeing washed away creating a layer of calcium on top of the Clay.

Then this changesto chalk/calcium carbonate = Pedogenic lime. The low rainfall of the Bendigosubregion (dry) also helped to retain this soil. This then gives a sandwich of clay/windblown topsoil, limestone and then more Clay.In conclusion – The combination of Clay, Time and Dry climate = gives the possibilityto create limestone in an area with no former sea. Pedogenic lime is formed by slowformation of time as opposed to the sea being forced up from below (Parisbasin/Burgundy). It’s a lot younger than the classic limestone found in France. Ironoxide is also present in the sub region.