Shares a handy win for winemaker De Bortoli De Bortoli Wines, one of Australia's largest family-owned wine groups, has swung back into profitability after posting a $24.7 million loss in 2012 as rising equities markets helped boost the winemaker's extensive share portfolio, with costs at its wineries also bolstering the bottom line. Documents obtained by BusinessDay show De Bortoli Wines, the third-generation wine group founded by Vittorio and Giuseppina De Bortoli in 1928, recorded a full-year net profit of $5.041 million for fiscal 2013. Revenue for the period was slightly down to $166.63 million from $167.65 million. The return to profit is in the wake of a substantial loss in the previous financial year when the value of the winemaker's substantial equities investment portfolio sank by nearly $50 million following a number of unfortunate investment decisions including a large exposure to North Queensland mining giant Kagara. But the rising equities market and better investment plays had this time swung around to once again boost De Bortoli's earnings for 2012-13. "The consolidated profit has been attributed to significant improvement in the valuation of the equities being held by De Bortoli Wines Pty Ltd and cost reduction strategies implemented across the group," De Bortoli Wines reports in its latest set of accounts. De Bortoli's sharemarket plays, led by chief executive Darren De Bortoli, have often been a handy wind in the company's sails, with profits from its stock trading actually eclipsing its wine earnings for fiscal 2011. According to De Bortoli Wines' latest accounts for 2012-13 it racked up a profit of $910,000 on its equities investments, against the near $50 million in losses previously. In fiscal 2012 the value of its equities was written down to $20.8 million from $69.2 million in 2011. Costs for De Bortoli Wines' flagship wine business were also reined in during the year with selling costs down to $15.85 million from $16.9 million in 2012. The winemaker said in the last year it had also received a $4.8 million grant from the Australian federal government as part of the Clean Technology Food and Foundries Investment Program delivered by AusIndustry. It matches an investment of $11 million by the De Bortoli family as it aims to installs solar energy technology at its facilities. De Bortoli is the first large family-owned wine company to report its earnings for fiscal 2013 with others to follow soon, throwing a light on the performance of some of Australia's most well-known and iconic wine brands in the face of the high Australian dollar, import competition and a downturn in general trading conditions.