Otto Dal Zotto has been named Victorian Legend of the Vine at the 2025 Melbourne Royal Wine Awards trophy lunch.
The award is presented by Wine Communicators of Australia to recognise a Victorian who is of excellent character, who is held in high regard by their peers in the world of wine, and who has made an outstanding contribution to the Australian wine industry.
The recipient must also demonstrably share WCA’s values on the importance of developing and inspiring excellence in how they communicate about wine.
Otto Dal Zotto single handedly brought a new grape variety to Australian vineyards – Prosecco.
He pioneered the way for Australians to fall in love with this new home-grown style, earning him the name of ‘Father of Australian Prosecco’.
Otto was born in the north of Italy in Valdobbiadene, the home of Prosecco.
After moving to Australia, he settled in the King Valley, married and together with his wife started their own vineyard.
Here they planted well-known grape varieties but also Italian favourites such as Nebbiolo, Barbera, Pinot Grigio and Sangiovese.
However, it was in 1996, sitting in the vineyard and sipping an Italian Prosecco, Otto had a lightbulb moment.
He decided that the family would start planting Prosecco and searched far and wide to find a cutting of the grape.
In 1999 an Australian wine industry first was recorded, when Australia’s first Prosecco vineyard was planted in the King Valley by Otto and in 2004 Australia’s first home grown Prosecco was released.
This wine helped reshape the sparkling story in Australia and re-energised the King Valley.
Australia is now one of the fastest-growing sparkling wine markets in the world, with the total value of Australian Prosecco production estimated at around $205 million alone.
WCA board member Katherine Brown said, “The story does not finish here.
“In 2009 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.”
This 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 said, “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 Victorian Legend of the Vine, Otto Dal Zotto.”
Otto Dal Zotto is the eighth Victorian to receive Legend of the Vine status.
He joins a prestigious list that includes Lindsay McCall, Alister Purbrick, Steve Flamsteed, Jeni Port, Eric Vivian Thomson, Kathleen Quealy, Ross Brown and Colin Campbell, and he will also join them in becoming a lifetime member of WCA.