Wine Communicators of Australia has named the founder of Dal Zotto Wines Otto Dal Zotto its Victorian Legend of the Vine for 2025.
Otto is the ninth Victorian to receive the state award since it was introduced in 2014 and was recognised for his role in single-handedly bringing prosecco to Australian vineyards and for pioneering the way for Australians to fall in love with it, thus rightfully earning him the title ‘Father of Australian Prosecco’.
“I am surprised at how popular Prosecco has become,” said the Italian-born King Valley winemaker reflecting on his award. “I wanted to grow some because I grew up with it. I used to walk through the vineyards to school, eating bunches of Prosecco grapes, it’s a taste that’s part of my culture. To start a new variety takes a lot of time and effort, and it’s been wonderful to see Australians embrace it.”
It was therefore fitting that WCA Board Member and Brown Family Wine Group’s Luxury Portfolio Manager Katherine Brown was present on the night to grant the award. Similar to the Dal Zotto’s, the Brown family has also been instrumental to ensuring Australian prosecco producers have been able to maintain the right to use the word ‘prosecco’ in place of ‘glera’.
While this battle is still ongoing, with prime minister Anthony Albanese defending Australian producers at a meeting with the European Commission president earlier this year, the strength and pedigree of Australia’s prosecco industry has been fundamental to the strong support it has received.
This pedigree started with Otto Dal Zotto’s first prosecco plantings in 1998 and the release of the first commercial Dal Zotto Prosecco, L’immigrante, in 2004 – five years before the European Union, at the behest of Italian winemakers, initiated actions to prohibit the name Prosecco being used by any region outside the geographical area.
In the same year as this took effect, Otto’s son Micahel Dal Zotto was awarded an International Specialised Skills Institute Fellowship and travelled to his father’s hometown of Valdobbiadene to work with, and learn from, Italian producers. He and his brother Christian would later purchase the family business from their parents in 2018, ensuring generational succession.
Addressing the crowd at the 2025 Melbourne Royal Wine Awards Trophy Lunch during which the Legend of the Vine award was announced, Katherine Brown said the 2009 name-change “pushed Otto to ignite the King Valley wine community and lead a relentless charge to stop this action, taking the cause all the way to the Federal Government, who in 2023 refused to sign a proposed free trade agreement with the EU citing Prosecco as a key sticking point. Anthony Albanese stated, ‘the Australian Government has made it clear that it will not sign a deal that does not serve our national interest’. The EU backed down, and the winemakers of the King Valley and the rest of Australia celebrated the win that was bought largely by an impassioned argument from the newest VIC Legend of the Vine, Otto Dal Zotto.”
Now 21 years since the first Dal Zotto prosecco was released, Otto’s sons have announced a new Prosecco-focused cellar door experience at the family’s King Valley winery.
“This is an exciting industry to be a part of anyway, but to contribute the way the family has and introduce a variety into the market that has been so well embraced makes us all so happy,” chief winemaker Michael Dal Zotto said. “The success of the wines and that we have helped to put King Valley on the map makes us extremely proud.”
Similarly, Marketing Director and brother Christian Dal Zotto says: “Dad didn’t just plant vines; he planted a dream. He turned bubbles into a movement and the King Valley into Italy’s northern outpost. Now he’s officially a legend – which he’s been reminding us of daily.”
Otto Dal Zotto in his King Valley vineyard (left, right); Christian, Michael, Elena & Otto (centre)
Otto Dal Zotto is the ninth Victorian to receive Legend of the Vine status and joins a prestigious list that includes Lindsay McCall, Alister Purbrick, Steve Flamsteed, Jeni Port, Eric Vivian Thomson, Kathleen Quealy, Ross Brown and Colin Campbell.
He also joins fellow 2025 Legends of the Vine for New South Wales and South Australian, Bruce Tyrrell and Peter Gago.
The 2025 Victorian Legend of the Vine accolade was crowned at the 2025 Melbourne Royal Wine Awards Trophy Lunch.
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