2024 · Fontaine Cabernets

Dominique Portet is a family-owned Yarra Valley estate in Coldstream, founded in 2000 by ninth-generation winemaker Dominique Portet and now led by his son Ben, the tenth generation. Working from the family’s Coldstream and Gladysdale vineyards, the winery focuses on estate-grown, hand-picked fruit and small-batch production. Farming is low-intervention and biodiversity-focused, with cover crops, native plantings, site-specific canopy management, attention to soil health and minimal synthetic inputs. In the cellar, Ben Portet aims to let each site speak through wild fermentation, gentle extraction and restrained use of new French oak, producing balanced, elegant cool-climate wines with both immediate appeal and cellar potential.