Julie Mortlock

Senior Executive Winemaker
It is probably an advantage having nerves of steel, given Julie’s responsibilities at De Bortoli. Not only does she oversee all the reds made at Bilbul, she has also been “looking after” the company’s flagship wine Noble One since 2000, a challenge she relishes.

“I really like making Noble One,” she says. “There are always lots of decisions to be made - when to pick, when to stop the ferment, how to put the blend together, determining what goes into new oak, old oak or doesn’t get oaked at all and so on – there is also the challenge of maintaining the high standard set by Darren [De Bortoli].”

Julie has been with De Bortoli for more than 20 years and has moved through many roles with the company on her journey to the Senior Executive Winemaker position and guardian of Noble One’s fortunes. She came from a dairy farming background in Victoria’s Gippsland and had worked in laboratory positions in the dairy industry before deciding on a career change.

“The wine industry had laboratories like the dairy industry, so that is how it started for me,” she says. “I had no winemaking background but I enjoyed wine and was growing to appreciate it. Like most I started with the sweet stuff and progressively began to drink better quality wines.”

While working in Quality Control at De Bortoli, one of the senior winemakers encouraged her to study winemaking which she did, gaining a Bachelor of Wine Science from Charles Sturt University in 2001, all the while making wine at Bilbul, including a stint as Senior White Winemaker.

Now she is in charge of reds and is gaining attention and awards for her work with varietals such as Durif and Petit Verdot. Vintage conditions are often less than ideal but the weather is just another challenge for Julie and partly what attracted her winemaking. “Mother Nature doesn’t give us the perfect vintage too often,” she says.

“Each season is unique and part of the interest is you never know what’s coming. You think you’ve seen it all and then something else comes along. It is particularly interesting at the moment with the industry at a crossroad, not knowing what you're going to sell and where you’re going to sell it. We just make sure we make the very best we can at the best possible price. We’ve always been competitive and we’re still here.”