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La Sorga
Languedoc-Roussillon, France8 wines2.9 avg
53
Anthony Tortul's Languedoc project - zero-zero winemaking from old Mediterranean vines, provocative labels, polarising wines, and a deliberate rejection of everything polite about wine culture.
La Sorga is Anthony Tortul's project, based near the village of La Sorga (commune of Montagnac) in the Hérault department, Languedoc - between Pézenas and Marseillan. He has been making wine since approximately 2004-2005, though exact dates are hard to pin down because Tortul does not maintain a website, does not court press, and treats most conventional wine-industry infrastructure as an obstacle to be avoided.
The operation is small and deliberately unstable - maybe five to eight hectares of own, leased, and bought-fruit parcels at any given time, shifting year to year. Old Mediterranean vines: Cinsault, Carignan, Grenache (Noir, Gris, Blanc), Aramon, Terret, Muscat, and others. Everything declassified to Vin de France.
The philosophy is zero-zero in the most uncompromising sense: no added sulphur, no inputs, no fining, no filtration, no temperature control. Biodynamic and organic in the vineyard. The wines are intentionally wild - sometimes volatile, sometimes brilliant, sometimes both in the same bottle. Critics have compared his approach to punk music; Tortul doesn't seem to mind. The labels frequently carry provocative, political, or humorous artwork.
Cuvée names rotate constantly and production is often a few hundred bottles per cuvée, which makes cataloguing them pointless. The wines are found in the most avant-garde natural wine bars in Paris, London, Tokyo, and Copenhagen, and almost nowhere else.
La Sorga is extremely divisive. Adored by a segment of the natural wine world for the uncompromising vision and the genuine wildness. Dismissed by others as flawed, unstable, or undrinkable. Tortul is unapologetic about this. If you want consensus, you are in the wrong place.
