the not serious Paul Pujol

The funny thing with social media is you can have these online relationships with people but never ever physically meet them. Paul Pujol was one of those blokes for me. Almost every restaurateur I knew raved about the man and couldn’t believe I’d never met him. Thanks to that raving, voyeuristic portal that is Instagram, to be honest, I sort of thought I had. Turns out I hadn’t — until we had this not serious chat. 

There are some people you should never meet. You know the saying, “never meet your heroes”? It’s a premise that they never meet your expectations and you leave the encounter deflated and resentful. Well, let me tell you, meeting Paul Pujol in real life is not like that. It is, in fact, pretty bloody dreamy. 

Armed with a dry wit meets a fiery sarcasm, Paul has this lovely unassuming calm that is balanced by a clearly caring, sentimental take on life while being something of a adrenalin junky — and he makes tasty gear for us all to enjoy — and he comes from Hamilton. The storytelling flows from this dude like the Waikato River cuts a track through that city. Broad and deep and carefree albeit with planned direction. 

Paul shares a winemaking story during this chat that really takes the biscuit. It’s like the Lottery win of how to kick start your wine career. He talks about how his French Father coped with the cheese selection of 1980’s back country New Zealand, spoiler alert – he describes it as being like soap—which is by all accounts was fair for those days. Mon dieu! At least these days Les fromage is much more fanciful and shares the same attention to craft as our winemakers. 

Speaking of making wine, Paul gets candid about what it takes to make the Prophets Rock Vin de Paille— a wine that arrives dressed in a striking short bottle eluding to the fact it’s something a little bit different. This little sucker is made from a single parcel of Pinot Gris and takes 21 months to ferment. Now, I may have just gotten technical for the wine curious folk but let me tell you, that’s a shit tonne of time to ferment and by all accounts, what’s left in the barrel at the end of it to be asserted into the aforementioned snazzy bottle is one fifth of fuck all which why it’s sold out. Honestly, listen to this story of winemaking and if you’re not sold on this fella’s vision and his mad passion for the craft then I’m not sure you deserve to drink any of his booze. He has the commitment of a monk trying to beckon God from the sky. It’s close to insanity but also pretty bloody dreamy. 

So, grip those rosary beads firmly in one hand, grab a glass of some heavenly sweet, sweet nectar in the other and get ready for some enlightenment. This is the not serious Paul Pujol chat. 

not serious wine chats would like to thank our supporters:
Tradecraft
By the Bottle
Antipodes Water Co.
Special thanks to my pal, Benj Brooking of Popular.nz for his help with the editing. An expert filmmaker, editing these chats is being done as one mate helping another. Thanks Benj. You're a legend.

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