As the trusted custodian of De Bortoli’s Noble One, Julie Mortlock knows a thing or two about Botrytis. However, as a 33-year veteran, there’s more in her cabinet of tricks than sweet wine.
When the senior red winemaker left De Bortoli in 2006, Julie Mortlock and John Coughlan were both working with the whites. As Coughlan had a good handle on the whites, it made sense that Mortlock would move over to managing the reds. She did, however, make sure that she took the botrytis wines (including the iconic Noble One) with her to add to the red and fortified wine portfolios. She had been doing most of the analysis of Noble One since beginning at De Bortoli in 1989, eventually taking over responsibility for making the iconic wine.
Darren De Bortoli and his father, Deen, had first made the wine in 1981 using a surplus of semillon grapes that remained on the vines. McWilliams had made a botrytis semillon in 1958 and Darren fell in love with French sauternes while at Roseworthy. So he and Deen approached the growers to take the surplus grapes. They made a wine but decided not to release it. When 1982 proved to be a perfect year for botrytis, they made the first Noble One. It has become a hero wine for the Riverina, and De Bortoli has only missed producing it two years out of the past 40.
Darren was more than happy to leave the prestigious wine in Mortlock’s hands. “She took on the winemaking of Noble One, which saw the style become more refined without it losing its distinctive pedigree under her custodianship, an enormous responsibility she has taken on and flourished in,” he says.
Mortlock’s beginnings in the wine industry may well be considered unusual for someone who has worked for more than 20 years as a senior winemaker at a major Australian winery. She grew up on a dairy farm in country Victoria, decided that she didn’t want to go to university at that time, and so got a job in the laboratory at the local dairy. After working there for 10 years, she decided she needed a sea change (technically an ‘inland’ change). A friend of hers who knew she liked wine suggested she apply for a job at San Bernardino, with Stan Aliprandi – unfortunately, six months before the winery went into liquidation.
The company was bought by De Bortoli; Mortlock was one of a handful who kept her job and moved to Bilbul with the company. After a few years in the lab, she moved to the position of winemaker’s assistant, doing their trials, collecting samples. “A gopher in lots of ways,” as Mortlock puts it. This led to a role making commercial wines, focusing on port.
“She took on the winemaking of Noble One, which saw the style become more refined without it losing its distinctive pedigree under her custodianship, an enormous responsibility she has taken on and flourished in”
Chief winemaker Steve Warne (now at Kingston Estate) encouraged her to do a winemaking degree at Charles Sturt and after a six-year part-time slog, she graduated in 2001 with a Bachelor of Wine Science. As if working full-time and completing one degree wasn’t enough, she took up the challenge again, completing a Bachelor of Wine Business in 2010.
There are challenges working with a crush as substantial as the team at Bilbul manage. Their own vineyards supply only around 10-15% of the grapes that they harvest and so consultation with growers is an important part of their operations. Not surprisingly, Mortlock is a huge supporter of what the region produces. “The Riverina makes good whites and reds at a price most people can afford,” she notes. As well as Noble One, there are hero wines in durif and many of the alternative varieties, including fiano, montepulciano, nero d’Avola and tempranillo.
Mortlock insists that Noble One is a sweet table wine rather than a dessert wine, and can be an admirable choice for many different courses during a meal. One of her great delights is watching the fortifieds evolve over time and she is justifiably proud of the successes enjoyed by the Black Noble (with 10 years’ barrel age) and Old Boys (a 21-year-old tawny). She would just like to see more wine-lovers restrain their drinking during the meal and save space for a great fortified.
Let Darren De Bortoli have the last word: “Julie Mortlock is like family having joined us back in the late 1980s during a time of very quick growth. She has seen the ups and downs of the wine industry in that period and has always been a steady hand during a period of other winemakers coming and going.”
FACTS AND FIGURES
REGION | Riverina, NSW
YEARS IN INDUSTRY | 33
ANNUAL CRUSH | 60,000 tonnes
STAND-OUT WINES | 2018 De Bortoli ‘Noble One’ Botrytis Semillon
PHOTOGRAPHY BY Guy Lavoipierre.