
The Portet family boasts ten consecutive generations of winemaking that began in Bordeaux in the 18th century. Today, the Portet name is most closely associated with the Yarra Valley where father and son team Dominique and Ben Portet, respectively ninth and tenth generation winemakers, run a successful family winery.
Dominique Portet’s French lineage dates back to 1720 and the family’s sale of eaux de vie to the Martell family. Several generations later his father Andre Portet became régisseur (vineyard and winery manager) of Chateau Lafite-Rothschild in Pauillac.
Dominique joined his brother Bernard at Clos du Val in California’s Napa Valley, where he spent three vintages, a period that coincided with his New World search for vineyards to equal his native Bordeaux. That quest ultimately led to the establishment of two distinguished labels – Taltarni in 1976 in the Victorian Pyrenees, and later Clover Hill in northeast Tasmania.
Dominique Portet and his eponymous label, established in 2000, are firmly planted in the Yarra Valley where Dominique purchased a small vineyard and built a winery and cellar door.