De Bortoli Yarra Valley

In 1987 the De Bortoli family purchased a winery and vineyard in the prestigious, cool-climate Yarra Valley region to establish a premium wine brand for the company. Leanne De Bortoli and her husband winemaker Steve Webber moved to the Valley in 1989 and built the Winery & Restaurant complex that launched the new De Bortoli Yarra Valley label in 1990.

From a crush of just 35 tonnes in 1989, De Bortoli crushed 4214 tonnes in 2004 – 1987 tonnes of white grapes and 2226 tonnes of red grapes. Both the De Bortoli Yarra Valley and Bilbul wineries also processed juice from 3,600 tonnes of fruit grown at the company's King Valley vineyard in North Eastern Victoria – 893 tonnes of white grapes and 2703 tonnes of red grapes. The winery has a storage capacity of 4,500,000 litres.

The launch of the Windy Peak label in 1990 spearheaded the expansion which was necessary to reduce overheads in the winery. As more fruit became available both from De Bortoli's own 200 hectare estate and contract growers, the Gulf Station label was launched. This will become a key brand for the Yarra Valley in the future.

The company has enjoyed spectacular success with its Yarra Valley wines. The De Bortoli Yarra Valley Chardonnay has won 19 Trophies and 45 Gold Medals since 1990 including Best Chardonnay at the International Wine & Spirit Competition in 2000 and has flown in First and Business Class on some of the world's great airlines. The Yarra Valley Pinot Noir is also making waves and has twice won the Trophy for Best Pinot Noir at the Sydney Wine Show. The Gulf Station and Windy Peak Pinot Noirs are widely regarded as representing outstanding quality and value. In 1997, De Bortoli won Australia's most prestigious award the Jimmy Watson Trophy for Yarra Valley Shiraz and in 2002, Gulf Station Riesling won three trophies at the Melbourne Wine Show. These are just a few of many highlights for De Bortoli Yarra Valley.

The Yarra Valley winery has 3 full time winemakers including Steve Webber and employs a winemaker during vintage whose special area of expertise is Pinot Noir. There's also support staff including Cellar Hands, Laboratory, Vineyard & Administration staff as well as the staff employed to run the Cellar Door and Restaurant complex.

The De Bortoli winery and vineyard is located at Dixons Creek just 8 kilometres along the Melba Highway, from the township of Yarra Glen. The property was purchased by the De Bortoli family in 1987 and they have since added another 150 hectares of grapes to the original 13 hectares. The vineyard has a good mix of varieties including; Chardonnay, Riesling, Semillon, Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Shiraz as well as lesser known varieties such as Viognier.
Recent years have been marked by a complete turnaround in viticultural and winemaking practices stemming from the family's desire to make wines that reflect a sense of place.This fundamental philosophical change begins first and foremost in the vineyard with a move toward more organic, higher input viticultural practices in the belief that better soil and plant health will produce more sustainable vines and higher fruit quality.
The change in philosophy has extended to the winery where "less is more". This is the new way of thinking towards minimal handling, using gravity where possible (in some cases no pumps have been used at all), the use of indigenous yeast, judicious use of oak and an overall saying within the winery that "it is harder to do nothing".