Is Stompie getting soft?
🧑🏻‍🌾 For a long time I was convinced that Johan ‘Stompie’ Meyer was a man who made statements more often than he made wine. What I meant by this was that his strictly natural wines were sometimes brilliant, and sometimes weird, but no matter where they landed, they always sparked conversation.

👶🏼 Now I don’t know if having a child changed him, or whether he is just settling into a groove, but his range is beginning to present as downright reliable. Part of me thinks that Stompie would be insulted by this comment, but that doesnt change the fact that – from his PetNat, to his Cinsaut Rosé, to this Semillon – the Force Celeste range forms a formidable wave of smart, tidy, accessible natural wines, that can be enjoyed even by the more risk averse wine lover.

👄 THAT SAID, there is still an edge to them. This Semillon, which is the highlight of the range for me, has a reductive edge that will make the absent-minded quaffer stop and think before he pours another glass. There is a pronounced stoney river pebble core around which he layers gentle elements of orange rind, lemon grass, lanolin and sweet melon.