Darren De Bortoli

Managing Director

Darren De Bortoli is a third generation winemaker and Managing Director of De Bortoli Wines, one of Australia's leading family wine companies. Darren knew his destiny from an early age. His grandfather Vittorio De Bortoli, founder of the family wine business, decided in true Italian dynastic tradition that his grandson would become a winemaker. While he initially resisted, Darren found himself inexorably drawn into the business and Vittorio's wish was fulfilled.

Darren studied winemaking at Roseworthy, graduating in 1982 with a Bachelor of Applied Science in Oenology. He returned to the family winery and created a revolution in sweet wine whilst still in his early 20s, with Noble One Botrytis Semillon. The popular wisdom was that a wine of this style and calibre could not be made in Australia. Darren attributes his success to some of the great teachers at Roseworthy amongst whom was Dr Richard Smart who opened his eyes to the potential of cool climate viticulture which was being pioneered by a small number of single minded enthusiasts in regions like the Yarra Valley.

The success of Noble One showed Darren's parents the potential of premium wine production and they allowed him to steer the company towards acquisitions in the Yarra Valley from its Riverina base. Assisted by his sister Leanne and winemaker brother-in-law Steve Webber to drive the development, De Bortoli Yarra Valley has made a sizable contribution to the region and produces some of Australia's finest wines under the Yarra Valley Reserve Release, Estate Grown and Gulf Station labels. Darren then guided the family into the King Valley in the Alpine region of north eastern Victoria and more recently the Hunter Valley in New South Wales.

At the age of 33, Darren was appointed Managing Director, fifteen years on he is the longest serving Managing Director amongst Australia’s top 10 wine companies. He remains actively involved with winemaking, working closely with his team of winemakers. In a business where growth and change are constant, Darren has been an anchor of stability. He has enhanced the De Bortoli family’s leadership as an industry innovator.

Taking a patient, long term view on industry trends Darren embodies a strong wine growing culture and the family belief that they are guardians and managers for the next generation. At the site of the company's largest winery and vineyards in the Riverina, he has introduced a raft of environmental initiatives and management ideas. These ideas have been expanded and worked into a detailed action plan that is now being implemented at the winery site and vineyards.

The initiatives go well beyond regulatory requirements and include cooperative programs with national and local wine industry bodies incorporating many of the company's own ideas. These address the environmental impacts of grape growing, winemaking, packaging and transport activities, issues of water management, waste control, greenhouse gas emissions,flora and fauna conservation. De Bortoli is a trial site for the Australian Wine Industry Stewardship Program aimed at improving environmental performance across the industry.

“An advantage in being a private wine company is our role as custodians to the industry. Family companies tend to have a mindset formed by the passage of time and family folklore. We can give a unique customer offering in that we are represented by the core values of having several generations of family ownership giving a direct link to the past through oral and written histories and a strong connection with the consumer. As a family wine company we also look to the future, taking a long term view and we are determined to pass on a sustainable business to the next generation.”

Darren is actively involved in winemaking organisations including the New South Wales Winemakers' Association, the Riverina Winemakers' Association and the Winemakers' Federation of Australia. He also serves on the Wine Industry Research & Development Consultative Committee to the NSW Minister for Primary Industry.