Lucy M

A surprisingly quick ascent up the hill and to the east from Adelaide City, with the city’s lights glowing in the rear-view in a sort of otherworldly Mulholland over the San Fernando valley moment, immediately places one into what has become the epicenter of natural wine in Australia. ‘The hills’, as they’re called, a quasi Topanga Canyon meets Sonoma wine country zone, are home to a semi-overwhelmingly number of natural winemakers at this point—Manon, Jauma, Borachio, Travis Tausend, and the Broderick Brothers just to name a few.

Anton Van Klopper, originally from South Africa, has willingly or not, over the years become the north star of the bunch. Farming and making wine on a plot of land in the Basket Range originally under his daughter’s name LucyMargaux (a cease and desist letter from Chateau Margaux in Bordeaux put an end to that), Anton makes the sort of wine that at a point in time, seemed cutting edge and avant-garde, but is now becoming a style in which most wine drinkers lust after—short macerations for reds, free run juice for whites, co-ferments and blends, and dashes of residual CO2 in most bottles. Like so many winemakers that intrigue us, Anton is an improviser, making a large amount of cuvées that shift from year to year, and always with labels that he hand draws himself.

A few years ago we had the fortune of spending an entire day drinking and tasting with Anton that started with 8 AM yoga at an Adelaide Hills community center, and which then turned into one of the most memorable visits that we’ve had the pleasure of experiencing, tasting all sorts of experiments and a staggering range of wines, and witnessing Anton’s boundless energy up close.

Out of Control 2021
Field Blend
$31



Le Sarriette Pinot Blanc 2021
Pinot Blanc
$33



Rosé 2021
Sauvignon Blanc / Pinot Gris / Pinot Noir
$33



Sauvignon Sensuel 2021
Sauvignon Blanc
$35



Wildman Blanc 2021
Sauvignon Blanc (6 month maceration)
$35



Noir de Florette 2021
Pinot Noir
$35



Gamay Sauvage 2021
Gamay
$35