Rousing send-off for quiet achiever

Pioneering winemaker Julie Mortlock has been given a rousing send off. 

Mortlock has just retired after 35 years with the De Bortoli family at Bilbul in the Riverina, and has been in charge of making Australia's premier dessert wine, Noble One, for many years. 

The De Bortoli team described the departure of their senior executive winemaker as a "a sad but very special day". 

"After 35 years Julie has made the decision to retire and leaves behind a wonderful legacy that the De Bortoli family is so very proud of," the company said.

"She will forever be known as a wonderful role model for women in wine, a multiple award winner, and a humble and hard-working employee of De Bortoli Wines."

Last Friday night Mortlock was honoured with the 'Riverina Legend Award' at the Rivernina Winemakers Wine Show Awards. 

Mortlock grew up on a dairy farm and had ambitions to be a chef. Instead her passion for science kicked in and for the next 10 years she became a self-confessed “dairy lab rat”, a qualified tester of cream and milk.

She later became a lab assistant in the quality control labs at De Bortoli.

Mortlock later started working as a winemaker’s assistant (“doing the jobs they didn’t want to do,” she says) and began studying, firstly for a Bachelor degree in Wine Science and then another in Wine Business, both from Charles Sturt University.

Mortlock began looking after all the white wines produced at Bilbul, then moved onto the reds and fortified wines. 

New guard with good genes on deck at De Bortoli Yarra Valley

There is a new generation of winemakers coming though at De Bortoli Yarra Valley, learning their trade from maestro Steve Webber.

 
Do Bortoli has lost both long-time winemaker Sarah Fagan (now at TarraWarra) and Jono Thompson, who is leaving to head to Argentina.

Kate Webber. daughter of Webber and Leanne de Bortoli, has joined the senior team along with young winemaker Jai Harrop; who is the son of Matt Harrop (Curly Flat/Silentway and formerly Shadowfax) and Tamara Grischy (general manager at fine wine auction house Langtons).
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"Our daughter Kate and Jai, under the watchful gaze of Steve, will look after the Yarra winemaking," Leanne de Bortoli says.

"Kate graduated in Science (immunology) and has worked in all aspects of wine and done vintages in California, France and with Mac Forbes here in the Yarra.

"We joke that Jai has never tried a bad bottle of wine in his life. He graduated in Oenology last year and has done vintages at Brokenwood, Shaw + Smith, Shadowfax and in Central Otago.

"We are super-excited about their passion for wine, the new ideas they bring and their eye for detail. It is great to see the next generation of winemakers coming through."

Change is also afoot at De Bortoli home base in the Riverina, where the long-time maker of the iconic Noble One, Julie Mortlock, is about to retire.

The mantle of Noble One creator will be passed to another senior winemakers John Coughlan, who has been involved with Noble One in the past.

Image: Father and daughter team Steve and Kate Webber

Milestone for an iconic Australian wine

A trend-setting Australian wine, De Bortoli's iconic Noble One, is celebrating 40 years of continued success. 

Since its first release in 1982, Noble One has been awarded over 182 trophies and 505 gold medals globally. 

It is one of the most awarded wines in history.

Darren de Bortoli created Noble One at the family winery at Bilbul, in the Riverina region of New South Wales in 1982. 

Today the "sticky" remains the benchmark of Australian botrytis dessert winemaking.

"It feels like only yesterday that Dad and I were asking the local growers to allow their grapes to go rotten." Darren recalls. 

"They thought we were both mad, yet here we are celebrating 40 years of Noble One and what a journey it has been. 

"One of my favourite memories from the early days of Noble One was being awarded the trophy for best sweet wine in the world at the International Wine and Spirit Awards in 1984 by Madame Odette Pol Roger. 

"At the time it was like a dream." 

 
One fascinating fact about Noble One is that there is no sugar added into the wine, the sweetness is all natural and comes solely from the semillon grapes. 

This makes it an ideal wine for pairing with blue cheese and pates, with the salty/savoury characters of the dishes balanced out the natural sweetness of the wine. 

See www.debortoli.com.au/