As a boy, Darren De Bortoli had a habit of reappearing at the family table after bedtime. His mother, Emeri, remembers: “We’d send him off to bed but he’d always come back in and before you knew it, he was back at the table, eager to know what was going on.” Darren now runs a 98-year-old wine company at a moment when almost everything worth knowing about wine is changing, including who drinks it, what they choose, where they buy it and how much respect they have for the old rules. Darren
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As a boy, Darren De Bortoli had a habit of reappearing at the family table after bedtime. His mother, Emeri, remembers: “We’d send him off to bed but he’d always come back in and before you knew it, he was back at the table, eager to know what was going on.” Darren now runs a 98-year-old wine company at a moment when almost everything worth knowing about wine is changing, including who drinks it, what they choose, where they buy it and how much respect they have for the old rules. Darren inherited a surname rich in authority and now his present task is working out how much authority still sells a bottle.De Bortoli itself began with a market problem, when in 1928, Vittorio De Bortoli could not sell the Shiraz growing on his newly purchased Riverina farm during a regional grape glut. So he took unwanted fruit from neighbouring growers too, and crushed about 15 tonnes into wine. During this time fortified wines ruled the Anglo-Australian palate, so Vittorio found willing customers among the area’s Italian and European migrant communities.Nearly a century later, surplus red wine has returned to the family story as wine consumption falls globally, while China – once an enormous market for Australian red wine – has returned at a fraction of its former scale due to tariffs.De Bortoli has removed older Shiraz blocks, with some of the vines being around 40 years old. The problem is, the vines can be healthy, the grapes can be good, but the wine can still have too few buyers. A company created by finding a market for excess wine is now removing good wine because the market has moved elsewhere.The focus group vineyardIn FY25, De Bortoli’s Australian sales declined from $136.5 million to $128.76 million. Asia, including China, also eased, although the company returned to a $1.3 million profit after a $6.3 million loss the previous year. Darren has described conditions across wine as “very tough”, with Riverina and Rutherglen among the harder regions. The family’s response has been to literally pull out vines, scrutinise each block over a long horizon then direct capital towards grapes and regions with stronger prospects.“Remaining family-owned gives us the immense freedom to take the long view,” Darren told Inside FMCG. “Unburdened by quarterly market pressures or public shareholders, my family and I can make bold, decisive moves.” In the Yarra Valley, phylloxera has prompted replanting with improved material and the purchase of a red-volcanic-soil property at Woori Yallock for a new flagship family vineyard.The family is pulling vines from some ground while committing fresh capital elsewhere, these are evidently decisions that begin to make sense once the customer enters the picture.A 98-year-old company meets the spritzIn the King Valley, the estate is moving towards Prosecco, Pinot Grigio and Sangiovese. King Valley Prosecco is the company’s top-selling bottle and grew almost 4 per cent year on year in FY25, while Limoncello Spritz became its biggest launch of the year. Younger wine drinkers, Darren says, “seek out memorable experiences, freshness, and genuine brand values over rigid heritage.” For a business whose heritage stretches across four generations, “rigid heritage” is an interesting phrase. It also explains the spritzes, aperitifs and Mediterranean varieties. The challenge is making a 98-year-old surname feel current while filling shelves with wines suited to the way people actually gather, eat and drink.Who’s at the next seat at the table?Darren’s niece Kate Webber has moved from a science degree and two years in the Yarra Valley laboratory into the winemaking team, Madeleine De Bortoli has joined export while studying global logistics and maritime management and Callum De Bortoli works in customer service. Darren once kept returning to the table because he wanted to hear what the older generation knew. Soon, the younger generation will be listening to him. What he leaves them will be more far-reaching than any individual vineyard, but a family company capable of carrying its history without allowing history to choose its future.
