Johan was the first South African producer to join the exclusive ‘Brutal!’ club of winemakers. The label, Brutal!, started from a conversation three winemakers had a few years back (two are Catalan and one is French). The two Catalans, Laureano Serras and Joan Ramon Escoda exclaimed when tasting one of Anthony Tortul’s wines that it was ‘Brutal!’ or as Americans would say ‘dope/kick ass.’ Anthony didn’t get the reference and thought they were saying the wine was garbage. So he made a quick makeshift label with ‘Brutal!’ handwritten and the rest is history. Today ‘Brutal!’ is very much part of the ‘natural’ or ‘raw’ wine movement. The only requirements are that it’s ‘zero/zero’, meaning nothing added and nothing taken out. It also signifies the wine that is an experiment. Johan Meyer a.k.a. Stompie has two Brutal! wines, this one and a Chenin Blanc. This Cinsault comes from the Paardeberg Mountain in Swartland and joins the vault of ‘Brutal!’ wines made by natural-wine pundits such as Christian Tschida, Valentina Passelacqua, Matassa, and Do.t.e.
The grapes were harvested manually by taste and not Balling reading to insure good mouthfeel of pH and acidity, structure, and aromas. The Cinsault grapes were pressed directly onto dry Carignan skins for better acid and color concentration. The wine fermented at about 85 degrees F for 10 days and then spent another 22 days post-ferment on the skins for tannin integration. Aging was done for 11 months on the gross lees in old French oak, after which the wine was blended and bottled. No fining, no filtering, and no SO2.
