De Bortoli star loves a chardy challenge

After 35 years in the Yarra Valley, guiding the fortunes of one of Australia’s biggest wine brands, De Bortoli chief winemaker Steve Webber still feels the pressure at vintage time.

“My goal each year is to make better and more interesting wine,’’ says Webber, whose team has just finished picking vintage 2024. “You really have these three or four weeks of the year that determine what we’ll be drinking in the years ahead. We do think it’s looking to be a very good vintage – the pinot noir and chardonnay will be outstanding and cabernet looks very good as well.”

In wine, like most things, perfection remains an elusive quarry but De Bortoli has risen to the highest ranks of Australian wine under Webber’s watch.

As The Australian Wine Club president James Halliday says, De Bortoli has become “arguably the most successful of all Yarra Valley wineries, not only in terms of the sheer volume of production but also the quality of its wines”.

One of De Bortoli’s highest-rated wines from the brilliant 2021 vintage, the De Bortoli Section A5 Yarra Valley Chardonnay, stars in The Australian Wine Club’s line-up of four excellent chardonnays making up our dozen deal of the week.

While pinot noir is probably Webber’s favourite wine to drink, chardonnay is his favourite wine to make.

“Chardonnay is grown everywhere but to make it taste like the place that it is grown is challenging – when you do get it right, it is very satisfying,’’ he says.

De Bortoli’s A5 Vineyard, a southwest facing block in Dixon’s Creek, is one of the oldest chardonnay blocks in the valley, being planted in 1976.

“The 2021 in particular is really one of the best examples you’ll see of what the A5 produces,’’ Webber says. “I am often surprised at just how fine and delicate the wine from the A5 vineyard is – and the 2021 shows that.”

While the awards have been many over the years, including a revered Jimmy Watson Trophy and a Gourmet Traveller Winemaker of the Year title, Webber remains motivated by innovating and pushing boundaries.

He has a keen interest in developing lesser-known varieties such as gamay, a French varietal most notably grown in Beaujolais.