La Sorga | Anthony Tortul Wijn

La Sorga is the project of Antony Tortul, a cult winemaker in the Languedoc in the south of France. He started in 2008 as a négociant, buying grapes from growers he trusts rather than owning vines, and has since added a few plots of his own.

Today he works with fruit from around nine sites across the Aude and Hérault, many of them very old vines, on everything from clay and limestone to schist, basalt, sand and granite. That gives him more than twenty grape varieties to play with, and he uses all of them.

Antony is also one of the four founders of the Brutal!!! wine series, together with Escoda-Sanahuja, Mendall and Rémi Pujol. He designed the Brutal label himself, the same night the idea was born.

La Sorga is famous for the sheer number of cuvées. Almost every harvest brings new names, new blends and new labels, all bottled as Vin de France, so no two years look the same.

The Brutal wines are the best known: Brutal Rouge, Brutal Rosé and the Brutal Rosé pet nat. Maître Splinter is one of his orange wines, and bottles like Grande Pestilence, Gargantua, Bouvines, Jackie, Bruce, A Freux, Aubunite and La Danse de Saint Guy show the rest of the range.

Typical grapes include Cinsault, Carignan, Grenache, Mourvèdre, Terret and Vermentino. The wines can be wild and punk, but they have become cleaner and more precise over the years. Releases are small and change all the time, so check the list below for what we have right now.

Everything is picked by hand into small boxes. Antony usually works with whole bunches and ferments each grape and site separately, without temperature control, before deciding on the blends once fermentation is finished.

Because he sources from so many places, each wine really shows its corner of the south: the heat and herbs of the Languedoc hills, the salt of the coast, or the freshness of higher sites.

No sulphur goes in, and neither does anything else. The result is wine with a lot of energy and a clear La Sorga signature, sometimes with real tannic grip.

Who makes La Sorga wines?

Antony Tortul, a natural winemaker in the Languedoc, France. He started La Sorga in 2008.

Is La Sorga a négociant?

Mostly, yes. Antony buys grapes from growers he trusts across the Aude and Hérault, and also works a few plots of his own.

Does La Sorga add sulphur?

No. La Sorga wines are made without added sulphur.

What is the link between La Sorga and Brutal?

Antony Tortul is one of the four founders of the Brutal!!! wine series, with Escoda-Sanahuja, Mendall and Rémi Pujol. He also designed the Brutal label.

Why does La Sorga have so many different wines?

Antony works with many small lots from different sites and grapes, and blends them differently every year. New cuvées and names appear almost every vintage.

What grapes does La Sorga use?

More than twenty, including Cinsault, Carignan, Grenache, Mourvèdre, Terret and Vermentino.