2024 Lucy M Noir de Florette

WINEMAKER: Anton van Klopper
REGION: Adelaide Hills, SA
VARIETY: Pinot Noir
VITICULTURE: Organic/Biodynamic

This year, Anton’s Noir de Florette is 100% Pinot Noir from two vineyards in the heart of the Piccadilly Valley. Half the fruit is sourced from an east-facing block on red clay soils over sandstone at Deanery Vineyard in Balhannah. The other half comes from mature vines in the sandy alluvial soils of the famed Cemetery Block site near Uraidla. Farming at both sites is organic. The fruit ferments carbonically for six days in a 2500-litre fibreglass tank. Anton then takes only the free-run juice and light pressings and places them in 800-litre ceramic eggs to finish fermenting. The wine matures in the same vessels.

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.