Peter Gago

At more than 180 years old, Penfolds is about as Old World as a New World winery can get. Yet its history is anything but static. As chief winemaker Peter Gago puts it, "Penfolds has crafted many many wines/styles. Some remained, some not." What began as Dr Christopher Penfold's small backyard enterprise, supplying tonics to his patients, has become a global wine brand. Under Gago's modest but ambitious stewardship, Penfolds continues to explore new wines without losing sight of its roots.

Gago has thrived as its chief winemaker, historian, defender of the culture and, when he is not too busy, worldwide brand ambassador. He is as skilled at navigating corporate hallways and shareholder interests under past and present owners, such as Foster's and Treasury Wine Estates, as he is at winemaking. Just as striking is his work ethic, and how he has instilled it in a team of men and women spread across South Australia's vineyards and winemaking facilities.

Gago was born in Newcastle, England, and the family moved to Melbourne when he was six. After earning a Bachelor of Science at the University of Melbourne, he taught chemistry and mathematics before the wine business called. He then earned a Bachelor of Applied Science (Oenology) at Roseworthy College, finishing top of his class.

He arrived at Penfolds in 1989, first in charge of sparkling wines. He became Penfolds Red Wine Oenologist before taking his current job in 2002. We met shortly after at the historic McGill Estate, where Gago explained how they would restore the site and return it to its rightful place among Australia's most important wineries, with deep Australian wine roots.

Gago has exceeded his word. As only the fourth winemaker to make the flagship label Grange, he has carried the considerable challenge of producing the holy grail of Australian reds each year and, for the most part, improved it inch by inch. It is hard to name another wine that has kept an entire nation fixated on its outcome for more than 50 years.

Gago was recently in Vancouver, showcasing several of his wines and explaining how they have executed a second-to-none quality plan. Gago pointed to no single vineyard, vintage or new winery. His answer for success: it is the sum of years of small, incremental tweaks in the half-of-one-percent range. The goal is to improve everything that can affect a wine's final quality, from corks and bottles to vineyard pruning, irrigation, and grape handling, the process of making the wine and the people responsible for making it all happen. Slow but steady is how they win the race.

Gago has always honoured the classic Penfolds styles without turning his wines into museum pieces. During this Vancouver stop, we asked whether a "Penfolds style" still exists. Grange has always been a multi-regional shiraz in American oak and is the style's archetype. Yet RWT is a single-region, all-French-oak shiraz pointing in a new direction. The latest 2026 Collection spans more than 20 wines and five vintages, most notably the 2022 vintage, Grange's 75th anniversary. It mixes multi-region and multi-vineyard blends with single-region and single-vineyard wines, including a handful of wines made in France, California, and China.

At release, Gago told Prestige Online that the stylistic template "hasn't fundamentally changed," though countless one-percent improvements in the vineyard and at the winery benefit every vintage. He says those refinements aim to express Max Schubert's original vision more faithfully. Interestingly, he does see himself as a custodian of that culture.

He is often asked what Schubert would make of Penfolds today; Gago said he would be reassured that "Grange is still Grange. Bin 389 is still Bin 389. St Henri is still St Henri. The house styles continue."

What has changed is how many routes lead to that house style. Gago now points to four kinds of Penfolds wine: single-vineyard, single-region, multi-regional and multi-country blends. He told Luxurious Magazine they all aim at the same thing, "crafting wines to a House Style – style, character, structure and texture." He also credits multi-regional and multi-country sourcing with "allowing Penfolds to stay faithful to that style despite oftentimes 'challenging' local vintage conditions."

House styles, Penfolds styles, or simply evolving styles, what we know for sure is that as long as Peter Gago is making Grange and still in charge of Penfolds, every release is likely to matter. Vintage variation will always play a hand, but his passion and intimate connection with this historic label will likely keep it from ever being anything less than good.

We await the bulk of the 2026 Collection in British Columbia, including the 2022 Grange, for reasons known only to the provincial monopoly, but here is an extensive selection of Penfolds labels you can buy at retail or in restaurants in B.C. today. More will follow as the wines become available.