Inspired by many travels to New Zealand, California and Burgundy, Johan Meyer, AKA “Stompie”, has been scouting vineyards hoping to produce the best South Africa can offer, giving honor to the world’s most elite varieties: Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.  Stompie established his namesake label in 2010, and looking back on his time working harvests around the world, was set on making site-specific, natural wines that reflect the place and grape in the most honest manner.  He works with only organically farmed fruit and farmed most of the blocks himself, setting up long term leases only with trusted growers whose expertise he can lean on.

In 2018, Stompie and his wife Anri purchased a small farm atop the Piketberg mountain in the northwestern reaches of the Swartland, where they are establishing their family legacy, raising their two young daughters. The four Meyers along with a harem of ridgebacks call their little homestead Platteklip Vineyard, and it is here where J.H. Meyer Signature Wines will be based once the young vines are capable of providing fruit for both Mother Rock, Stompie’s other well-known label, and J.H. Meyer. The estate is situated just 18 miles from the Atlantic Ocean at between 2,000-2,600 feet above sea level in a small valley; this area is so different from the hot lowlands of the Swartland that Stompie and Anri successfully petitioned for a new W.O. called Piket-bo-berg. The mountain’s proximity to the sea and altitude makes for a climate that is similar to the cool enclave of Elgin and the soils are blend of koffieklip and sandstone, rather than the usual granite and Malmesbury shale of lower Swartland.

In the winery, there is no SO2 added before or during fermentation but it’s a natural element that comes from the vines and there is always some SO2 in the wines. That being said, most of the wines are lightly sulfured before bottling for preservation and stability. In short, the wines are simply “naturally fermented grape juice.”