Lucy Margaux

Bright and catchy labels on hand-made fibre paper, hazy contents with flocks of sediment, seemingly atypical grapes for Australia - a single bottle of Lucy M stands out on a wine shelf. The assumption is obvious: these are low-intervention wines. And indeed, Anton Gerrard van Klopper, the man behind them, is a convinced naturalist.

Anton worked in hospitality for ten years before wine, and got curious about why he liked some bottles more than others. He went to the University of Adelaide for a degree in oenology, then spent a few years travelling and working with winemakers he respected. This was the early 2000s - before the natural wine vocabulary had crystallised, before you could learn it from Google. The philosophy had to be assembled out of conversations.

In 2002 he bought an old cherry orchard in Peramangk country in the Basket Range of the Adelaide Hills, South Australia, and started Lucy Margaux - named for his daughter Lucy, with a cheeky nod to Château Margaux on the name. Eventually Bordeaux objected; the project now trades as Lucy M Wines, though the farm keeps the original name. At the time, the Adelaide Hills was renowned as one of Australia's premier cool-climate regions, with a growing reputation for Chardonnay, Shiraz, and sparkling wines. It took a while to become a hub for organic and biodynamic viticulture. Anton played his part in that shift, partly by convincing other growers to change their farming.

The most challenging part of natural winemaking is to live with the naysayers who choose recipe over craft.

-- Anton Gerrard van Klopper

The vineyard itself is small - a few hectares in the Piccadilly Valley and Basket Range - with Pinot Noir as the speciality, plus Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Gewürztraminer, Riesling, Gamay, and Sangiovese. The cellar is as unfussed as the labels: no additions, no subtractions, just grapes. Organic farming, wild-yeast fermentation in neutral vessels (old barrels, ceramic, concrete), no temperature control, no fining or filtration, and for some years now, zero sulphur at any stage. Cuvées include Monomeith (single-parcel estate Pinot), Wildman Blanc and Wildman Pinot Noir, Le Petit Piccadilly, Sauvignon Sensuel, Gamay Sauvage, Sangiovese Stupefacente, Tête d'Œuf, Out of Control.

In 2016, together with Jasper Button of Commune of Buttons and hospitality veteran Aaron Fenwick, Anton opened Summertown Aristologist, a wine bar and restaurant near the farm where he pours his own wines and cooks his own food. He never gave up on the hospitality side. It turns out the two sing a single song.