The Penfolds team, including chief winemaker Max Schubert (centre), during classification in the late 1950s. photograph courtesy of Penfolds. It’s hard to imagine what life was like 180 years ago. In 1844, Thomas Edison had yet to invent the electric light, the preferred mode of transport was horse and cart, and Australia was not yet a federation. That was the year that Penfolds, one of Australia’s premier wine producers, was born. In the decades since, the winery has witnessed a continuum of transition from horse and cart to automobile, to robotics and AI.
Through the 19th and 20th centuries and into the 21st, many wines have been poured into many bottles by careful hands — from Penfolds’ first chief winemaker, Max Schubert, to today’s expert team — in the label’s Magill Estate winery. Influenced by fashion and fad, technological evolution and global revolution, despite being nearly 20,000 kilometres away from the European wineries that served as early inspiration, Penfolds has pushed the envelope with its ongoing commitment to innovation.
It’s not every day that a winery turns 180, particularly given the relative youth of Australia’s wine industry. On this anniversary, the company will celebrate appropriately. Penfolds’ chief winemaker, Peter Gago, has hinted that a new edition of the company’s collectible tome, “Penfolds: The Rewards of Patience”, is on the horizon, following extensive tastings in Paris and Hong Kong. After a pandemic-induced hiatus, Penfolds’ famous Re-Corking clinics are also due to resume this year.
New wine releases are ready, too. The formidable 2024 Penfolds Collection includes a rare Penfolds Commemorative Release, the 2021 Bin 180 Coonawarra Cabernet Shiraz. Gago also recommends that wine lovers think of the upcoming 2022 Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon and 2021 St Henri Shiraz as “drinking investments”.
Even at the top of its game, after 180 years of testing and triumphs, Penfolds still has a long way to go, Gago says: “Volume One at 180 years is now complete, and the journey continues.”
The Penfolds Bin 180 Coonawarra Cabernet Shiraz 2021 gift box is avalible to shop now. $1,180 (750ml). penfolds.com.
