JH Meyer

Johan Meyer, AKA “Stompie”, has quickly established an excellent reputation in the emerging South African wine industry, as a boutique producer making hand crafted natural wines from small plots of special vineyards. While his namesake ‘Signature’ wines reflect his love of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, Stompie is not one to limit himself and thus created the Mother Rock Wines wines in collaboration with his UK importer Ben Henshaw of Indigo Wines.

Palmiet Chardonnay

Elgin is one of the naturally coolest vineyard locations in South Africa. Its altitude (1,650 – 2,300 feet above sea level is considerably higher than the 975 – 1,300 feet of Stellenbosch) benefits the grapes through naturally lower temperatures and higher rainfall. There is greater cloud cover (due to the manner in which clouds form as the air rises over the mountains from the coast and condenses into rainfall). What’s more, in winter, Elgin benefits from much cooler temperatures than Stellenbosch or elsewhere and consequently the vines enter into a deeper dormancy state, resulting in better rest which, in-turn, enhances the longevity of the vine and supports general vine health. To cut a long story short, thanks to these unique natural attributes, Elgin has emerged as a wonderful, naturally-favorable location for producing among the finest aromatic white wines in the country.

The grapes were handpicked in the early morning hours in mid-February and placed into very small boxes reducing compaction and damage to the fruit. Half of the grapes were fermented in old French oak barrels and then pressed to third fill 500L puncheons. The remaining bunches were pressed to concrete eggs for fermentation. All ferments were carried out naturally on the lees with sporadic battonage being used to give richer texture and greater complexity. After 12 months the barrels were racked to tank to settle naturally and it was bottled without fining, filtration, or added sulfur

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Cuvee NOS Pinot Noir

The goal of showcasing the terroir of the Cape South Coast through single vineyard Chardonnay and Pinot Noir took a ‘little’ detour when Stompie and Anri purchased the land now known as ‘Platteklip Vineyards’ in Piket-bo-berg, Swartland. The intense planting work done there shifted the focus of ‘JH Meyer Signature Wines’ to eventually becoming ‘Platteklip Vineyards.’ In the meantime, Stompie will continue to put his deft hand (and hair) to work with Burgundy varieties across the Cape. In 2019 he took all of the single vineyard sites and produced two blends and one single-vineyard wine and is continuing that tradition in 2020. The ‘Cuvée NoS’ is an amalgamation of organically farmed Palmiet (Elgin) and Elandsrivier (Elandskloof) sites.

All the grapes are grown from one single vineyard in Elgin forming part of the South Cape region. The vineyard was planted in 2000, 3500 vines per hectare with rows North to South. The fruit was hand picked at optimum sugar levels with Stompie keeping a keen eye on the pH levels being his more important ‘number.’ The grapes were fermented entirely whole-cluster and crushed by hand with a single daily punchdown over the course of 10 days. The wine fermented for 10 days and then spent another 22 days post-fermentation on skins for further tannin integration. The wine was then gently pressed with only the free run juice along with gross lees into a single old French 40hL foudre where the wine aged for 12 months. It was bottled directly from cask without fining, filtration or a sulfur addition.

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Carbonic Pinot Noir

This site is the original source for Stompie’s Pinot Noir. First planted in 2000, and named after the nearby Palmiet River, the vineyard is densely planted to 3,500 vines per hectare with North-South rows on a southwest-facing slope, allowing for more even ripening. Since 2013 there has not been a single spray on the vineyard and it was certified organic in 2018. The soils are mostly “Koue Bokkeveld” shale with table mountain sandstone and clay at an altitude of 1,000 feet.

The grapes were hand harvested the second week of February into small picking bins monitoring the pH closely as Stompie feels this is the most important thing when fermenting reds whole-cluster. The grapes were kept in as much of an anaerobic setting prior to fermentation in order to maintain as must freshness as possible. The intact bunches were placed into small one-ton fermenters and sealed up at a warm 85°F to naturally ferment for 14 days. Once the wine went dry it was then gently pressed, with full lees, to a single 25hL concrete egg for maturation. After twelve months the wine was bottled directly from the concrete egg without fining, filtration, or sulfur.

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