Grapes: 60% Cab Franc + 40% Merlot
Region: Saint Emilion, France
Vintage: 2021
Viticulture: Organic
Soils:
Vinification: Grapes are hand-picked and de-stemmed by hand. Fermented spontaneously in oak barrels
Aging: Wooden barrels and dames-jeannes
Fining or Filtering: None
Sulfur: None added
Notes from the Importer: “Ormiale 2021 is extremely refined, thanks to a major percentage of mature Cabernet Franc. It’s full of fruit BUT also full of flowery notes. Very delicate. And only 12.5% ABV… it’s a big difference from Ormiale 2018+19,” notes Fabrice, who describes the previous vintage as more full bodied, fresh, and minty. “This 2021 is still very young but has a great aging potential.”
Ormiale is a project Fabrice Domercq started with the famous British designer Jasper Morisson, in 2007 in the Entre-deux-Mers region of Bordeaux. Ormiale took their small .69-hectare plot organic in 2009 and now cultivates 2 hectares of Demeter-certified vines in the Côtes de Castillon and Côtes de Francs. They work with very low yields, between 20-29 hl/ha (compared to the 59 hl/ha authorized maximum in this region). All grapes are destemmed by hand and manually loaded into conical french oak vats where the fermentation takes place without additives. The wines are almost always made without any addition of sulfur.
In July 2021, the winery moved into a new cellar – an old limestone quarry in downtown Saint-Emilion. “We feel blessed to have found that opportunity: permanent temperature all year long, darkness, silence, mineral all around… we couldn’t have found something better to continue to experiment with the juices. Already after 2 vintages made there (2021 and 2022), we are astonished by the possibilities for winemaking that such an ideal location is allowing us. It’s an extraordinary tool to do better,” Fabrice enthuses about the stable conditions and low temperatures, so crucial for making high quality natural wine without any added SO2. “I had an intuition that this place could be fantastic BUT never as much as it appears now.”
Given the area where they are located, Ormiale works a lot with Merlot and Cabernet Franc, turning them both into still red wine and rosé pet-nat. In 2022, the winery also released their first white wine called Secmillon; as Fabrice says, “no matter the « support » (red, white, sparkling, pink, etc….), an Ormiale wine is an Ormiale wine: sharp, vivid, expressive, generous but yet discreet and as drinkable as mountain river water.”
