Lucy M L'enorme Merlot 2022
The Wine
100% Merlot. Sourced from Magpie Springs farm in the Hope Valley, a sandy soiled site located at the top of a hill in close proximity to the ocean. The fruit was destemmed and saignéed, leaving a very concentrated skin-to-juice ratio. The juice fermented in an open-top 2,000 litre oak barrel and was foot plunged once a day for three weeks. The wine was then pressed to seasoned French oak for maturation.
Anton’s Notes: The velvet warm of darkness, the comfort of a warm hairy mountain man cuddling in a cold winter storm, the richness of black pudding, the beauty in blackness.
The Details
Variety - Merlot
Country - Australia
Region - South Australia
Sub Region - Adelaide Hills
Extra - Cork
Year - 2022
Volume - 750ml
About the Wine Maker 
Anton van Klopper’s commitment to making wines without any additions and his unwavering, unapologetic attitude have made him a pinup boy of natural wine—not just in Australia, but internationally. His craft of natural wine is a straightforward exercise: it involves vinifying grapes, and grapes alone, without any additions whatsoever. Few debates in wine have been so charged or divisive but Anton’s approach remains on course.
Despite Anton’s wide renown, this is a super-small operation. The Lucy M vineyard and winery sit in the Basket Range, a picturesque pocket of the Adelaide Hills, where Anton also grows vegetables for The Summertown Aristologist—his nearby restaurant and cellar door (run together with Commune of Buttons). Anton also sources fruit from vineyards both in and around the Basket Range, which are rented and tended by him and his friend Jasper Button (all have gradually been converted to organic viticulture.)
Anton’s formal wine education has taught him to understand what he doesn’t want to do. He admits that it has taken time and plenty of practice to make completely unadulterated wines, but the risk is worthwhile. These are complex, raw and mind-bending wines to taste. They are the product of a multitude of techniques, with natural ferments including some that are aged in large-format oak and concrete eggs. All preceding to bottling without fining or filtering. They are unapologetic for what they are and that’s exactly how Anton intends it to be.
