Nestled in the Adelaide Hills, high above the beaches, and boasting a diverse landscape of orchards, fruit trees, and vines, this area is the home of the Australian natural wine movement and Anton is widely considered one of the key players. He is also one of the proprietors of The Summertown Aristologist: a restaurant and wine bar that is the hub of the Basket Range farming community.

Each vintage brings a multitude of new cuvées as Anton experiments with assemblage and different fermenting vessels to create high-energy unsulphured wines that are worlds apart from the de facto chemical cocktail, high alcohol, and mass-produced (cough cough… Yellow Tail) wines that Australia is unfortunately known for.

 

Here’s a piece that Anton has written on his impressions of ‘natural wine’:

“Natural wine is simply wine made from grapes. But it is so much more because ‘natural’ is not greed, capitalism, chemical, or control. It is a metamorphosis to allow the archetypal beverage to form. Therefore, natural wine cannot be made by greedy people; you must have a relationship with the vines that offer you their fruit, and it would be a sin to manipulate them with chemicals, so they must be farmed organically. To adulterate nature’s work by filtering, fining, or any addition, including small amounts of sulfur, is not natural. I’m proud to be amongst the makers of these wines. Even though there are high risks of volatile acidity, mousiness, brettanomyces, and lactic acid bacteria fermentation, it is enlightening to learn the skills and walk with nature. The most challenging part of natural winemaking is to live with the naysayers who choose recipe over craft. I am thankful for those who support natural wine. It is good for your body and creates a more beautiful world.”

 

All label artwork is illustrated by Anton’s daughter, Lucy van Klopper."