De Bortoli rips out vineyards as Gen Z ditch red wine

The patriarch of one of Australia’s largest family owned vineyards is doing the unthinkable, and ripping out 40-year-old vines as wine consumption slides.

Darren De Bortoli at a vineyard in the Hunter Valley.

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Ripping the heart out of a family business.

Darren De Bortoli, patriarch of one of Australia’s largest family owned winemakers, is despairing at the sickly state of the wine industry which he has labelled as “a disaster”, and is now doing the unthinkable by ripping out some of his family’s historic vineyards to cut his losses in a dwindling market for red wine.

Mr De Bortoli said the downward spiral of younger consumers turning away from wine, and especially reds, has placed pressure not just on his winery but the entire sector as Australia was now over-producing in a shrinking market. Worse still, Australia built its international reputation on award-winning shiraz and cabernet.

His family owned De Bortoli winery was finding some success with its ranges of lighter-style wines grown in Heathcote, Victoria, as well as double-digit sales growth for its prosecco and rosé. However, classic reds remained in the doldrums with Mr De Bortoli now forced to rip out vines in two of his wineries and undo some of the work begun almost 100 years ago by the company’s husband-and-wife founders Vittorio and Giuseppina De Bortoli.

“There is no point having our head in the sand, and we have got to be transparent about the situation, and we are already going quickly through an adjustment phase and for example we are removing vineyards,” Mr De Bortoli told The Australian.

“We are doing that, removing vineyards, at Bilbul and Rutherglen. And it is because of the situation with reds, and if you are going to readjust or restructure your vineyards, the best time is to do it now.”

De Bortoli Wines boss Darren De Bortoli.

The historic significance of Bilbul to the De Bortoli family cannot be understated – it is where new immigrant Vittorio bought his first farm in 1927 and that kickstarted the De Bortoli story in Australia. The vines being ripped out now in Bilbul are 40 years old, replanted in the 1980s from Vittorio and Giuseppina’s original work.

“I asked him (Vittorio) about the depression years, he shrugged and said he always had food on the table,” Mr De Bortoli said.

The nation’s $45.5bn wine industry is now in the midst of what feels like a depression.

Bilbul, in the Riverina region of NSW and once a powerhouse of the wine industry, is now at ‘ground zero’ for the ills currently besetting the sector as the downturn in wine consumption, lower export volumes into the once booming China market, plummeting grape prices and adverse weather sees vineyards and grape growers struggle. Many have decided to leave the industry altogether or bring in the bulldozers where their vines are no longer economically viable.

The Murray River region is another struggling wine centre, and where De Bortoli’s vineyards in Rutherglen are being razed.

“The proportion of vineyards we are pulling out is not insignificant,” Mr De Bortoli said.

The malaise spreading across the wine industry – from farmers, vineyards, cellar doors and wine makers – was “a disaster” he added.

Darren De Bortoli is pulling out vines amid tough conditions across the sector.

“There has been fundamental changes in the consumption patterns because of Covid, all the related Covid supply issues and then China and everything else and what we are seeing now is basically all these influences coming together, and it is a disaster.

“People are drinking less, switching from reds to whites, they are more health conscious.”

Whether it’s for health, changing tastes or the cost-of-living crisis, wine consumption globally is at its lowest levels since 1961. Red wine, historically a strong variety for Australia, is particularly struggling and peak body Australian Grape & Wine estimates the oversupply of red wine in Australia sits at 330 million litres to label it an “unprecedented oversupply crisis.”

Last year, the head of the nation’s largest family owned winemaker, Yellow Tail producer Casella Wines, said he was alarmed by the effect of declining wine consumption on the industry’s profitability and employment prospects. John Casella, whose juggernaut “cheap and cheerful” Yellow Tail label grew from a drawing board idea after the Sydney Olympics to become the most popular imported wine in the US, fears tens of thousands of jobs across regional and rural Australia are at risk.

“What I would like to see is the industry band together to try to get consumers interested in wine again,” Mr Casella told The Australian in December.

“What is happening in Australia is not specific to Australia, it is happening throughout the world, to French, Italians, Americans, we are all suffering from an oversupply of grapes,” Mr De Bortoli said.

A bright spot for De Bortoli is its growing portfolio of white wines, led by its prosecco and rosé. According to De Bortoli’s financial accounts for fiscal 2024 its King Valley prosecco range posted 23 per cent sales growth compared to the previous year. Its De Bortoli King Valley prosecco remains the No. 1 bottled wine in the De Bortoli portfolio.

De Bortoli recorded total sales of $172.3m for 2024, up from $159.86m in 2023, with the private company slimming its losses to $6.32m from $9.33m.

De Bortoli found success with a partnership with pop superstar Kylie Minogue in launching a range of lighter style wines such as rosé. Picture: Michelle Tran

“We are just fortunate that our King Valley and Yarra Valley wine regions are strong and that is really positive for us, and we just love Heathcote for the quality of the reds that it produces.”

Its white wines also got a push from a partnership in 2022 with pop princess Kylie Minogue, who collaborated on a chardonnay and pinot noir.

Mr De Bortoli is hopeful younger drinkers will eventually return to classic reds as they get older and their tastes mature from lighter white varietals.

“When they get older, I think there is a general feeling that they will come back to the fold.”

Originally published as De Bortoli rips out vineyards as Gen Z ditch red wine