Dormilona's delicious lo-fi Margaret River Cabernet is such a graceful red. Made from the organically farmed Dormilona plot at Yallingup, the grapes for this delightful wine are hand-picked, foot stomped and basket pressed, with an emphasis on soft touches and minimal handling at all times. It then delivers us a juicy, bright and fun red of bright purple blackcurrant fruit, some of that leafy Margaret River fragrance and a fresh, taut finish, all delivered with no additions bar a minimal amount of sulphur.

Margaret River is one of those Australian wine regions where there seems to be a real sense of magic in the soil. It’s home to some winemaking monoliths and teeny-tiny small-batch producers making sure each and every bottle does justice to the land and label. Dormilona is definitely of the latter variety, and we really fell in love with the slow and steady approach, meticulous attention to detail, and determination to keep things as small, as natural, and as quality as possible. Run by Jimmy and Josephine Perry, Dormilona sources organic and biodynamic grapes from across Margaret River, carefully choosing those that they feel have the character their wines deserve. Once selected, they hand-make each and every batch from their tiny winery in Cowaramup. Dormilona means ‘lazy bones’ in Spanish, and while we wouldn’t exactly describe running an increasingly popular organic winery as a married couple ‘lazy’, it does go some way towards describing certain aspects of the winery’s approach. This is a label that really values letting the soil and the earth do the hard work and allowing the fruit to reach its maximum expression without messing about, without chemical intervention, and without having to wake up at dawn to spray fertilisers all over the vines. By letting nature take the lead, not only do you get to have a few more lie-ins on a Saturday morning, but you also get wines that lose nothing of their terroir in the bottle. That’s the Dormilona way, and we’re absolutely on board with it!