Dormilona Orenji 2023
The Wine
Little Orenji – a stunning balanced Semillon / Sav Blanc. All organic fruit, hand harvested, fermented on skins for two weeks in open fermenters plus a giant cement egg for eight weeks pressed off to barrel & egg for full malo. Simply racked, a touch of sulphur to ensure you have a great product with no bottle variation or oxidation & bottled. Dormilona
The Details
Variety - Semillon, Sauvignon Blanc
Country - Australia
Region - Western Australia
Sub Region - Margaret River
Alc. Content - 12.00%
Extra - Screwcap
Year - 2023
Volume - 750ml
About the Wine Maker 
Translating as ‘lazy bones’ in Spanish, the name Dormilona is as evocative of Josephine Perry’s methods as it is also entirely unrepresentative of herself and her work ethic. The message here, of course, is a hands-off approach to making, but that ‘neglect’ is benign and underpinned by a rigorous approach to farming and fruit sourcing. While some ‘conventional’ fruit has been employed at times, the vast majority is organic or biodynamic, with the intent for it to be all so, especially with the winery now certified organic.
Perry started somewhat early in the wine game, with vintage work at Cape Mentelle at the tender age of 14. This came about via the encouragement of one of her mentors, her Grandfather. He was a brewer at the old Swan Brewery, and they used to experiment with all kinds of things that fermented, including an apricot wine that she made for her high school science class – that one got her a detention.
Perry studied winemaking by distance (Charles Sturt), so was able to fit in an extraordinary range of experience in a relatively short time, including in the Rhône, Burgundy, Bordeaux, Spain, New Zealand and California, as well as a near unbroken string of Margaret River vintages, plus some time in Orange, NSW, with Philip Shaw (another mentor). If that’s not enough, before settling back into Margaret River full-time, she managed the winemaking operations at two wineries in Galicia, as well as consulting in the Canary Islands. Lazy indeed.
Perry has been a three-time finalist in the Young Gun of Wine Awards, first when she won Best New Act in 2013 (notably, it was the first year of that award – with the judges so taken by the new Dormilona label that they decided to create the Best New Act trophy), then in 2014, and again when she was crowned Young Gun of Wine in 2016.
Perry works in a minimal intervention way, for sure, with no additives, bar a minimal application of sulphur, but her wines don’t always fit into what one might have come to expect from ‘natural’ wines. Although she does use skin contact on whites to a degree, her wines are especially poised and elegant, lithe and crackling with spirit and drive, while still packing plenty of detail. She uses amphora for her ‘Clayface’ label for both cabernet and chardonnay, and tends to steel and neutral oak otherwise. Overall, the Dormilona wines are thoroughly individual, while also paying due respect to some of the touchstones of Margaret River. YOUNG GUN OF WINE
