Meet Peter Gago — the winemaker driving Penfolds’ worldwide success

MELBOURNE schoolteacher Peter Gago enjoyed wine so much he became a collector — and then moved to Adelaide to learn to make the stuff. Now he’s the grand genius of Grange.

Penfolds chief winemaker Peter Gago. Picture: Matt Turner

Peter Gago admits he’s in the grip of the grape. Others might say obsessed. Years ago the man who is now chief winemaker at Penfolds donated some treasured bottles from his extensive collection for a raffle to raise money for his wife, Labor MP Gail Gago’s election campaign.

Not long after the draw, remorse kicked in. Gago couldn’t help himself: he went and bought two of the prizes back from the winners.

Gail has recounted before about the fallout when, while he was off travelling, she plucked a rare vintage from the cellar, a “nice drop”, which turned out to be, in Peter’s estimation, priceless and irreplaceable. And how, after that, he’d choose a few for her. Still does.

With fondness, she calls his collecting an “irrational passion”. “He’s like a little bowerbird,” she says. “I really noticed that things had changed when Peter’s wine collection surpassed the music collection.”

But Gago, 59, is by no means apologetic about his passion. He is after all the bloke who makes the Grange, the nation’s hugely expensive, iconic red. It is the drive which led to him in 2002 being crowned the chief winemaker at Penfolds — arguably Australia’s most famed and feted winery — and has kept him working “non-stop for a couple of decades-plus”. It’s also the drive which has led to Penfolds being named “World’s Most Admired Wine Brand” by global wine and spirits magazine Drinks International, among other accolades too numerous to mention. That award is the result of excellent winemaking, world-leading marketing innovations, and the audacity to claim Penfolds’ place next to the best wines the world has to offer.

For Gago, his life as a jetsetting winemaker is a long way from where he started his professional life as a schoolteacher, while Gail was among the first degree qualified nurses, later specialising in neuropsychology.

Penfolds’ chief winemaker Peter Gago. Picture: Matt Turner

Dissatisfied with the direction of teaching in Victoria where they lived, the couple talked about a possible career change. According to Gail: “So he came home one day and said, ‘You’re absolutely right, I’ve decided to study oenology (winemaking)’.”

“I said, ‘Well, I can’t remember seeing any Department of Oenology at Monash, where is it?’ He said, ‘It’s either Wagga or Roseworthy (in South Australia)’. That wasn’t quite the career change I’d anticipated. We took the train to Adelaide, loaded the cars on. It was ’86.”

Gago’s obsession soon paid off.

Starting his Bachelor of Applied Science (Oenology) degree at age 29, he graduated top of his class. He started with Penfolds in 1989, initially making sparkling wines before moving on to reds. Since then, he has been “myopically” focused on Penfolds, determined and passionate about bringing the wines, led by the flagship Grange, to the world.

And he’s excelled at it.

The role of winemaker is craftsman, scientist, performer and bon vivant. It’s a job that keeps him on a plane for much of the year, pressing the flesh at intimate dinners with key “wine evangelists” and flashy Las Vegas soirees where hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of wine will be tasted and judged in an afternoon.

He’s passionately poetic about his wines. Here’s his tasting notes on the Bin 23 Adelaide Hills Pinot Noir (2014): “Certainly a wine at one with the soil, earthy vegetable — parsnip, turnip, beetroot, capsicum.” And the Grange (2011): “Majestic. Arguably a less regal unfolding of sarsaparilla, creamy soda/cola-root beer nuances (how can this be?!), synergised with black (not red-) licorice and soy.”

He is an excellent storyteller, peppering his many (and many off-the-record) tales with the names of dignitaries, rock stars and captains of industry who he has converted over the years to share in his passion for Penfolds. And he does it free of any airs and graces which you might think could accompany the guy who makes a bottle of wine which sells for $785.

Gago is meant to put on white gloves before he flicks through A Year in the Life of Grange. His enthusiasm gets the better of him though, and the gloves lay discarded to one side as he flips through the book — a rare collector’s edition designed for lovers of Australia’s best known wine.

He’s scrubbed his hands pretty well before we meet though. It’s more than halfway through vintage and despite his efforts the telltale deep plum of the shiraz, cabernet and sangiovese he’s been handling with his team have seeped into at least a few cracks in those hands which have been, for the past 27 years — 14 as chief winemaker — tasked with producing the best known, and objectively many of the best, wines in Australia.

I’ve made the short trip up the hill from Adelaide to Magill Estate to talk about that accolade: Penfolds being named World’s Most Admired Wine Brand by Drinks International magazine. It’s one in a list of accolades too long to recount, but you can recently add International White Winemaker of the Year from the International Wine Challenge in 2015 to the list, and the World’s Best Wine of the 1970s (for the 1971 Grange) to your accounting of the brand.

When I arrive, the car park for the newly refurbished restaurant, Magill Estate Kitchen, and cellar door, is virtually full and I struggle to find a spot. Chinese tourists pose for photographs out the front and the deck is full of diners lounging, taking in the view stretching over metropolitan Adelaide to the coast.

Gago and I meet in the nineteenth century fermentation cellar. Wax-lined concrete vats lined with beeswax and paraffin bubble away furiously, one filled with shiraz, another with mataro, a third with sangiovese — not destined for the flagship Grange which is usually a shiraz with less than 8 per cent cabernet sauvignon (sometimes 100 per cent shiraz), but it’s looking good for a “Special Reserve’’ - the releases Penfolds brings out if a particular parcel of fruit which is not in their usual Bin-release line-up really sings. Sometimes these graduate to a Bin-series wine, like Adelaide Hills pinot noir did in 2009 (Bin 23). A promising youngster brought off the bench into regular rotation.

The bubbles surge to the surface in rows — the grape skins among the “must” held at the bottom of the vats by wooden waxed planks which the carbon dioxide ripples through. Five new Perle oak barrel fermenters bubble away near the entrance, behind the basket press which is being emptied by hand — more experiments fill the air with distinctive vintage aroma, a tannic, astringent, plummy “not quite wine” aroma. We’re turfed out into the sunshine by a group on a tour of the winery, Gago greeting them effusively as we swing out into the sunlight on our way to his office, via Cellar 2, a barrel room where rows of French and American oak are slowly making their contribution to the infant 2016 Magill Estate Shiraz (a Penfolds “monopole”).

Once inside, the A Year in the Life of Grange tome comes off the sideboard and on to a boardroom table (circa 1880), the first used by the Bank of Adelaide. But of course, like most efforts at Penfolds, it’s not just a book. It’s something special, which those who have grown to covet Penfolds Grange will also covet, and buy.

It is a collaboration between photographer Milton Wordley — who followed Gago on his yearly global travels in 2012 from vintage to international roadshows, recorking clinics, tastings, new releases and back — wine writer Phillip White, and designer John Nowland.

One of the two available special editions, priced at $1000 and $4000, is bound with kangaroo hide, and comes in an archive box encased by American oak. Purchasers receive numbered prints of selected photographs.

I’ve brought with me my copy of The Rewards of Patience — not for Gago to sign, like many admirers do, but to reflect on what motivates a winery to produce seven editions of a book devoted to the history and vintages of its wines. And, further to that, why it puts this in the hands of outsiders, who get to rate the company’s precious vintages and declare how long they’ll “drink” respectably for.

I don’t really get a chance to ask my questions though. Gago has the warm charisma of a natural performer and, after 14 years in the job as Penfolds chief winemaker, he’s still enthusiastic for this great South Australian product, which, as he says proudly, keeps company with names such as Pol Roger, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Montrachet, and Dom Perignon.

He’s been “in sprint mode for the last two-plus decades” at Penfolds, but he seems genuinely excited to tell you about what the team and he does, to draw you into the world of Penfolds and to explain why it is important.

What does it take to be the best in the world? Who comes up with all of this stuff? Who on earth buys a 750ml $168,000 ampoule of wine? (not people who want to have it publicised, is the short answer).

First, it is about having the confidence to believe you belong on the list which includes the world’s best and oldest wineries; that Penfolds Grange, which was conceived by Max Schubert in the early 1950s, should be noticed, and sought out by the world’s wine collectors.

Gago achieves this by spending much on his life travelling, hosting intimate dinners attended by the likes of influential US doctor, wine collector and Penfolds “evangelist” Dr Bob Bellevue, the late New Orleans R & B legend Allen Toussaint, the litany of rock stars he reels off then swears me to secrecy about, or the massive, ostentatious tastings which even the world’s wine aristocracy talk about years later.

“In Vegas in 2002 we poured eight vintages of Grange for 1275 people at the Venetian,” Gago says. “The who’s who of the world of wine were there. Now that’s something you have to do — sort of. As many comment — you can’t afford to do it, but you can’t afford not to.”

In October 2015, at another tasting for Wine Spectator they poured the 1990 Grange (the 1995 Wine of the Year) and the 2008 Grange (multiple 100 point scores) for 1000 people — 72 bottles of each. That’s well over $100,000 worth of wine, and five other legendary Penfolds wines joined them on the placemat.

The Penfolds winemaking team has excelled in forcing people to take notice of them.

Last year, in a move which has put a few noses out of joint locally, The Penfolds Collection was released in China. In October the winery took over the China Pavilion in   > Shanghai, and decked out in Penfolds red. “The Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra, Magill Estate Restaurant delicacies, a film narrated by Russell Crowe … people from all over the world,” Gago says, referring to the short film, The Story of Grange, produced to coincide with the 2011 Grange release.

“People taunt, ‘are you walking away from South Australia?’ No. We ultimately bring them back here. This year we’ll be back in Manhattan hosting the ‘Penfolds House’. We use an ‘unobtainable’ property for two or three days in the middle of Manhattan. Last year we were lucky to use (fashion designer) Donna Karan’s place in the Meatpacking district.”

In 2012 Penfolds launched its most ambitious project to date — the aforementioned $168,000 handmade glass ampoule filled with a very special wine. Just 12 were made, and should purchasers ever be inclined to open such a special vessel, a senior member of the winemaking team will fly in especially to do so, using a purpose-designed, “tungsten-tipped, sterling silver scribe-snap”.

“A 750ml ampoule priced at $168,000 was either very courageous or naive,” Gago says. “Yes, this Block 42 Cabernet ’04, may have been given 100 points, whatever that means, but more importantly Block 42 Cabernet is from the world’s oldest continuously-producing cabernet vineyard — right here in SA.

“The 1953 vintage of that wine was called Grange Cabernet. For obvious reasons linked to confusion we never repeated that name. Arguably that wine, if you find a pristine bottle, is not on a plateau well over half a century later, it’s still on the ascent.

“That was bottled 60 odd years ago with the bottling technology of the day. Imagine if you’d bottled it with today’s equipment and know-how. The 2004 which went into the ampoule will deliver for well over a century. We’ve in effect created a time capsule.”

The ampoule launch was held at the Baccarat Club in Moscow. Attendees included rarefied global media, the head buyer from London’s famed Hedonism wine store, the odd Russian billionaire.

If we are lucky enough to own a bottle of Grange, or perhaps a 707, St Henri or RWT, we can take it along to a Penfolds Recorking Clinic — another Penfolds innovation, running since 1991 — where wine owners can taste, top and reseal their wines at free events held in Adelaide, and around the globe.

Penfolds Grange Hermitage

“It’s like what Rolls Royce do,” Gago says. “It sounds glib but it is the ultimate in wine after-sales service.” It is also theatre, unique and very personal.

“Recorking Clinics are probably one of the most significant things we do,” he says.

No one else does it in the same way, as Gago says “the interaction, the theatre and the reality”.

“For some people it’s one bottle. Some people bring in 100.

“Any Penfolds red wine can be registered, as long as the wine is over 15 years old.”

Of course, Penfolds Grange Hermitage, now simply Penfolds Grange, was almost consigned to the scrap heap by company management.

Schubert had been sent to France and Spain in 1950 to research sherry and port making practices — fortified wines being in vogue in Australia at the time.

Visits to Chateau Lafite Rothschild, Chateau Latour and Chateau Margaux, where he was able to taste Bordeaux wines between 40 and 50 years old, seeded the notion of an Australian wine which would cellar for at least 20 years.

“On his long five day return flight to Adelaide, via the Middle East, India, Singapore and Indonesia, he made plans to make a great Australian red wine that would cellar for at least 20 years,” says The Rewards of Patience.

Shiraz grapes were sourced from the Grange vineyard at Magill and the privately owned Honeypot Vineyard at Morphett Vale, planted by Wynn’s Coonawarra founder Samuel Wynn in 1920.

Schubert’s first experimental wine was made in 1951. It was never commercially released, but was considered “moderately successful”.

In 1952 it was bolstered with fruit from Nuriootpa and named Grange Hermitage after the house and vineyard owned by Dr Christopher and Mary Penfold in 1844.

Reportedly Schubert used “hermitage” rather than “shiraz” to “pander to the snobs in New South Wales”.

The wine was commercially released in 1952, however when he was asked to present the wine to top management in Sydney in 1957, it was universally disliked. “A very good, dry port, which no one in their right mind will buy — let alone drink,” one critic observed.

Chairman Gladys Penfold Hyland ordered Schubert to stop making the wine. But with 1400km between the board and Magill Estate, she didn’t have much chance.

Schubert continued to make Grange from 1957-1959, stashing it out of sight in Magill’s underground cellars.

Another tasting at the board level was organised in 1962, with the 1951 and 1955 vintages “greeted with enthusiasm”.

Production was ordered to “restart” and Grange survived to become an Australian icon.

Gago is blessed with a rich heritage at Penfolds, but also in South Australia, which, due to the blight of phylloxera which wiped out most of the old world grape vines in the late 19th century, is now home to some of the world’s oldest continuously producing vines.

Penfolds’ vision in putting away wines for long-term cellaring has also paid off.

“I’m lucky coming from a Penfolds culture where generations ago wines were locked away in cellars. We can pour, and do pour, wines from the 1950s, the 1960s and the 1970s often, at different tastings,” Gago says.

What Penfolds means for South Australia, along with other world class brands such as RM Williams and Jurlique, is an unparalleled marketing leg-up on the world stage, with Penfolds leading the charge.

“For South Australia, in a business sense, the message has to be very clear — it’s about endorsing the vinous spoils of South Australia. Penfolds has always been a major part of this. Naturally when offshore it’s got to be an Australian message first, highlighting South Australia, then Penfolds.

“I really do think this is a great SA story. But we have to translate it globally. The domestic market grows marginally each year, so just as well there’s a big world out there. We have such great brands and wineries in South Australia, such great vineyards — we’ve shipped wine offshore since the mid-1800s, so there’s no reason to slow down now.

“I remind people that the colony of Adelaide started in 1836, Penfolds started eight years later. So our history is very much dovetailed into that of South Australia.”

Gago says global potential is immense, and not just in Asia and Europe. The US market is 15 times the domestic market.

Penfolds’ owner, Treasury Wine Estates, does not break out the value of Penfolds sales, but it is fair to say that things are going well. In part spurred by growing Chinese demand for our high end wines, exports nationally are up with the ultra-premium wines leading the charge.

And the former schoolteacher turned winelover is a key part of the success as he circles the globe attracting others to the grip of the grape.

PETER GAGO’S PENFOLDS PICKS

IF MONEY IS NO OBJECT:

1. 1962 Bin 60A Coonawarra Cabernet Kalimna Shiraz $10,000

2. 1953 Grange $25,000-35,000

3. 1971 St Henri $4000

4. 2004 Block 42 Kalimna Cabernet Sauvignon (in Ampoule!) $168,000

5. 50 Year-Old Rare Liqueur Tawny $3550

*These wines are infrequently sold so prices can fluctuate.

IN THE REALM OF REALITY:

1. 2008 Yattarna Chardonnay $75

2. 1990 Bin 389 Cabernet Shiraz $190-$200

3. 2004 Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon $380

4. 2002 RWT Barossa Valley Shiraz $200

5. 2010 Grange $750

NATIONAL WINE WRITER TONY LOVE SAYS:

It doesn’t have to cost the earth to taste the key characters that have made Penfolds’ wines so famous. Try these well-known Bin range wines for a start:

Penfolds 2014 Bin 311 Tumbarumba Chardonnay ($40). Clarity, finely sculpted, and creamily textured. Then win the lottery and step up to the 2013 Yattarna ($150).

Penfolds 2013 Kalimna Bin 28 Shiraz ($40). Multi-regional shiraz in classic blackberry and plum mode, oak on show and underlying power driving the palate. If you’re impressed here, then go the whole hog with more refined and complex versions such as St Henri ($100), Magill Estate ($130) RWT ($175) and Grange ($785).