BRUTAL!!!

Our connection with La Sorga’s Antony Tortul dates back to 2013, when he generously invited us to taste through his cellar. The strict zero-zero world is a small one, and over the years we kept running into each other at salons, sharing conversations, tastings and, eventually, a lasting bond.

In 2024, at C’era Una Volta in Italy, organized by Le Coste, Michael brought a few samples from our cellar for a late-night, post-salon tasting with Antony and Patrick Bouju. The idea was simple: to see whether one of these wines could be worthy of the new golden BRUTAL!!! label. (If you’re not familiar with the recent history of BRUTAL!!!, we recommend Aaron Ayscough’s article The Golden Age of Brutal!!!)

As more bottles were opened, the group of tasters slowly grew. One wine, however, stood out immediately. It shifted the room, stopped the conversation, and made the decision obvious. That was the moment our first BRUTAL!!! was chosen.

Now that we work with the label, the approach is clear: each year we select a single, one-of-a-kind barrel. A wine that doesn’t quite fit into our regular lineup, that resists categorization, and that makes people pause when we taste it in the cellar.

⤓ Tech sheet 2023 BRUTAL!!! Riesling
⤓ Tech sheet 2023 BRUTAL!!! Pinot Gris