Halliday Dark Horse Winery of the Year – Dal Zotto Wines

With a rich winemaking heritage that spans more than 30 years, Dal Zotto has become one of the country’s most iconic producers of prosecco.

The family-run winery planted the first glera (prosecco) vines in the King Valley in 1999, paving the way for other wineries in the region to follow suit. Today, the area has adopted the local name of ‘Prosecco Road’.

“Dal Zotto’s range is built on our prosecco,” explains company CEO and winemaker Michael Dal Zotto. “It’s the wine that we pioneered in Australia and it’s really close to the family’s heart.”

Michael’s father, and winery founder Otto Dal Zotto, was born in Valdobbiadene, a village in Italy's Veneto region that is renowned for producing premium prosecco. In 2017, he handed over the day-to-day winemaking and management of the winery to his sons Michael and Christian, though Otto and his wife Elena still play an important role in the background.

Dan Murphy’s Wine Merchant Phil Egan from our Leichhardt store, says the winery’s sparkling is in a league of its own. “Dal Zotto’s prosecco is one of the most textural, but still fresh and light proseccos that you’re going to find out of the King Valley or anywhere in the world,” he says.

Yet the winery produces much more than prosecco. Since 1993, Dal Zotto has also established a strong reputation for other Italian varieties such as arneis, pinot grigio and sangiovese. And this year the winery has received commendation in the form of 95 points for six of its wines, among them three proseccos, one sparkling nebbiolo, an arneis and a fiano.

A part of the Wine Companion story for decades, consistently scoring a 4-star, or 4.5-star rating, Dal Zotto has finally made the much-anticipated jump to a 5-star rating, achieving the hallowed status of ‘Dark Horse’ in the process.

“To win the dark horse award is an absolute honour,” says Michael Dal Zotto. “It gives us that indication that … with our prosecco, and our other Italian varieties, we’re on the right path.”

Try the Dal Zotto Pucino Prosecco. You’ll quickly see why this pioneering family winery is so famous for Italian-heritage wines.