Josephine Perry, winemaker and proprietor of Dormilona, has worked more vintages than most people twice her age. What many North Americans don’t realize is the seasons are flipped in the Southern Hemisphere. By hopping back and forth between her home in Margaret River, Western Australia, and the Northern Hemisphere, she doubles the amount of wine she can make in a year. Add to this the disparity between harvest times in Australia (January-February) and New Zealand (March-April) and she sometimes even adds a third harvest. This insane work ethic has allowed her to acquire a surreal amount of knowledge and experience. On her travels she spent six years working in Spain. Waking up late, taking an afternoon nap, and staying up until the early hours wasn’t exactly her style. She preferred getting up before dawn, fitting in a swim, a run, or some surfing before the workday began. This usually meant she’d fall asleep at the dinner table, a habit that got her the nickname Dormilona: Lazy Bones. She decided this moniker fit her winemaking preferences perfectly - the less she has to do (i.e. fewer manipulations) the better. These bush vines were planted in the 1950’s in the middle Swan River Valley and are dry farmed. The grapes are destemmed into open top tank for fermentation with minimal cap manipulation for up to ten days. It is then pressed off into tank for élevage on lees before racking and bottling with minimal sulphur.
