Top award for De Bortoli

By Kath Gannaway
DE BORTOLI Wines in Dixons Creek have won the Best Tourism Winery award at the Australian National Tourism Awards.
The award at any time would be a thrill, but coming as it has in the midst of what has been a gruelling season in so many ways, it has provided the De Bortoli team with not only well-deserved recognition, but a welcome morale boost.
Cellar door manager Cara Hood who put the submission together, restaurant supervisor Tony Mestrinho and chef Tim Keenan and his partner Allison represented the company at the awards on Friday 27 February.
It was a memorable night.
“Just to have something so positive has been wonderful,” said company director Leanne De Bortoli.
Their staff come from around the fire-affected areas and many were working on Black Saturday.
“A lot of staff over those first three or four days were at their homes staving off ember attacks and each day making the decision whether to stay or go,” Ms De Bortoli said.
“It’s been wearing on everybody so when the award came through we were all really delighted.”
The award recognises excellence in every aspect of the winery tourism experience.
Ms Hood said the company’s environmental and community involvement were strong points in a submission which measured up very well overall.
“We have a really broad-based product which just about ticks all the boxes in the category, with the exception of accommodation,” she said.
Having worked at De Bortoli’s for 10 years Ms Hood was well placed to write the submission, a process which she said was worthwhile in itself.
“The number of wineries in this region has doubled in the time I’ve been here so competition is more intense and you have to keep extending yourself,” she said.
“The awards are a really good process through which to analysis what you are doing in the business.”
Ms De Bortoli agrees.
“A lot of time and effort goes into doing a submission. It covers all areas, environmental, staff development, customer service … all aspects of the business, so while we know we have something that’s a very worthy tourism business, doing the actual document also highlights areas where you might not be so strong, or might improve.”
In terms of awards however, Ms Hood says it’s not a submission that wins, it’s the product.
“If you didn’t have a great product to write about, you just couldn’t do it,” she said.