‘Dr. Ongo’ is a tongue-in-cheek name alluding to ‘drongo,’ which is a Australian slang for a halfwit. It’s a light-hearted rumination on the breed of people who roll themselves twenty cigarettes a day and snort drugs off cisterns but only drink pure, natural wine. Bloody drongos. It’s certainly an unconventional pét-nat in style, starting out as a dry rosé of Pinot Noir and getting a little bit of Riesling to jump start the fermentation again, but it’s totally Dr. Edge in ethos. The grapes come from two sites in the north and east of Tasmania, with the majority coming from the Meadowlark Vineyard in the Derwent Valley. Like with all of the Dr. Edge wines, Peter likes to focus on blends of sites to really encapsulate the entirety of the vintage across Tasmania. Plus, this way, he gets to play with the percentages of each block to bring out the elements he desires, which are consistently drive, energy, and texture.
This pét-nat starts as a table rosé made via whole-cluster pressing and a small addition of ‘Tasmania’ Pinot Noir saignée. Then, about five weeks later when the Riesling is picked, the dry, base Pinot rosé gets an addition of still-fermenting Riesling to reinvigorate the fermentation in the bottle. The wine ferments again to dryness, and then is bottled without fining, filtration, or sulfur addition.