Cover The Penfolds Story

An in-depth look at how Penfolds became one of the most iconic brands in Australia as the go-to winery for bordeaux-style wines Down Under

When one thinks of Australian wines, many wineries and vineyards may spring to mind, but none has achieved quite the iconic status of Penfolds Grange – Australia's direct equivalent to the first growths of Bordeaux, and a wine that commands not only the same kind of respect, but the same sort of price.

In the words of Australia's most influential wine critic, James Halliday, "It is impossible to overstate the importance of Penfold's Grange to the Australian wine industry...the establishment of Penfolds as one of the greatest red wine companies in the world can be directly attributed to Grange". Furthermore, Robert Parker awarded the 1976 vintage of Grange 100 points – a perfect score.

The success of Penfolds can be dated back to 1884, when Dr Christopher Rawson Penfold, an immigrant from England, founded the original winery. He brought vine cuttings with him, and used them to establish a vineyard at Magill on the outskirts of Adelaide, around a stone cottage he called The Grange. Penfold's wife Mary made the early wines, which the doctor prescribed to his patients as a tonic for anaemia. The labels bore a slogan still used in the company's marketing today - "1844 to evermore". The business blossomed, and by1870 the vineyard extended over 60 acres.

After Christopher Penfold's death, his widow established Penfolds and Co. in partnership with her son-in-law, Thomas Hyland, and the winery's cellar manager, Joseph Gillard, and it continued to expand in the early years of the 20th century.

Although during the 1920s and 30s domestic demand in Australia was mostly for fortified styles such as port, Penfolds produced a diverse range of table wines in which it excelled and were able to make profits to extend its holdings. By the late 1940s, in addition to Magill and the adjacent Auldana Vineyard, it was growing grapes on its own land in regions such as the Barossa Valley and Minchinbury.

In 1948, Max Schubert became the chief winemaker at Penfolds and was ambitious to make his mark in the burgeoning wine industry. Inspired by travels in Europe, and by a trip to Bordeaux in particular, he became obsessed with the idea of creating an Australian wine of equivalent quality to Bordeaux, and with the same sort of long-term ageing potential. The first vintage of what was originally called Penfolds Grange Hermitage was made in 1951, and the first vintage to be commercially released in 1952.

Grange's powerful Bordeaux influenced style, in a market dominated by port, was adversely reviewed and the wine sold poorly. Critics and consumers alike failed to understand that Grange was made for cellaring, and would not be ready to drink for several years. Subsequent vintages got the same unsympathetic response.

Penfolds' management lost heart, and in 1957 Schubert was told to stop making the wine. With a true visionary's faith in his own creation - and without telling his employers what he was doing - Schubert carried on making Grange anyway for the next couple of years.

By the end of the 1950s the early vintages were beginning to show their true bottle aged potential, and realising at last what they had on their hands in 1960 Penfolds' management asked Schubert to start making Grange again. He was able to respond that he had not missed a vintage.

Grange became the flagship not just for Penfolds but for the Australian wine industry as a whole, and although fine fortified wines remain very much a part of the country's winemaking tradition, in the 1960s still wines, both red and white, began to came into vogue, and port declined in importance.

Penfolds was at the forefront of quality production, and began to build up a portfolio of wines and styles across a range of price points. Schubert oversaw the development of a portfolio including the classic Australian reds in Penfolds' numbered bin range, before Don Ditter took over the Chief winemaker's responsibility in 1976, succeeded ten years later by John Duval. In 1990 Penfolds introduced its "White Grange", Yattarna Chardonnay, and in 2002 Peter Gago, a highly respected oenologist, took over as chief winemaker.

Although much of Penfolds' production is modestly priced and geared to supermarket sales in countries such as the UK, wine collectors look forward each year to the annual Penfolds May Release when the best of the company's recent fine wines become available.

Grange is an investment-grade wine. This year, the 2006 was released with a Recommended Retail Price (RRP) of A$599. The other wines in the 2011 release are 2008 Penfolds Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon with an RRP of A$189.99; 2008 Penfolds RWT Barossa Valley Shiraz with an RRP of A$174.99; 2007 Penfolds St Henri Shiraz with an RRP of A$89.99; and 2009 Penfolds Reserve Bin 09A Adelaide Hills Chardonnay with an RRP of A$89.99

"There is plenty of substance, fruit sweetness and latent power. With its overall richness, buoyancy of fruit and layered textures, it will take some time to unravel and evolve. Deceptively approachable at release... don't be fooled," says winemaker Peter Gago.

"The fact that the interest in super premium wines, particularly Penfolds Grange, keeps growing is phenomenal," says Stewart Langton, founder of wine specialist auctioneers Langton's which held the all Penfolds auction in May this year at which the 1951 bottle of Grange found a new home. "There's a great Australian pride in Grange. It has no parallel in the world. No-one can collect the first vintage of the great First Growth wines of Bordeaux, but that is possible with Grange."