Winemaker Profile: Steph Dutton
Steph Dutton is Senior Winemaker at Penfolds, responsible for overseeing the winemaking in each region we operate; Australia, California, France and China. It’s a role of remarkable responsibility.
Alongside Chief Winemaker Peter Gago, Steph builds upon foundations established by co-founder Mary Penfold to ambitiously assure the consistency of Penfolds House Style, while allowing regional essence to shine through.
What inspired you to begin your winemaking journey?
It was during my time in hospitality that I became enamoured with fine wine. I enjoyed how it could feature in social settings or be the centre of a conversation, and how it could be forever linked to a memory or moment of significance. Supporting this sentiment is the fact that anyone who has ever tasted Grange can always recall the occasion and is usually eager to share the story. Also, my undergraduate degree was Science at the time, and winemaking became a clear path that allowed me to maintain both passions.
Have any regions captivated you along the way?
Barolo in Italy is where it all began for me. It was one of the most esteemed (and expensive) bottles at the restaurant where I was working. Selling my first bottle felt like an accomplishment, but what I remember most is the conversation it sparked at the table. My hospitality funds ended up taking me halfway around the world to Barolo; I felt compelled to visit.
Nowadays I’d have to call out Champagne. It is a style that I haven’t had extensive experience crafting, and so still seems other-worldly to me.
When and how did you join the Penfolds winemaking team?
I moved to Adelaide for my Masters of Oenology and worked in between studies at Magill Estate Restaurant. It was the perfect Penfolds apprenticeship; we opened aged wines (often decades old) every evening and it wasn’t long before I felt like I understood each Penfolds wine intimately.
In 2010, following the degree, my predecessor Steve Lienert asked if I’d like to take on a vintage winemaker role with Penfolds. Unreservedly, yes! Members of this small team have incredibly long tenures – it was an honour to receive a call after three years that could have easily waited another 15.
How does your role as Penfolds Senior Winemaker differ from your early days of winemaking?
I could never have imagined when I first started with Penfolds that we would require winemakers with “boots on the ground” in two hemispheres and four countries – one vintage a year is big enough. I’m tasked with overseeing these regions and while Penfolds winemaking has grown, the fundamentals have remained the same.
Penfolds has always been a brand obsessed with quality and innovation, advancing within the world of wine with conviction, self-assuredness and humility. These are traits I also see in the people behind the brand, and I think that’s why Penfolds has been able to maintain a consistency over its long history.
Do you think the Penfolds House Style can be applied to wines you make outside of Australia?
Absolutely. The Penfolds House style is recognisable from Grange through to Koonunga Hill and equally denotes itself across each of our Country of Origin wines – it travels well. It is distinctive, bold and full of generosity, however it also respects varietal character and regional essence. It exists in the craft and is the reason each Penfolds wine presents as both unique and familiar.
Is the winemaking approach outside of Australia the same?
I would say similar, but not the same. It would be really easy to do things exactly the same and it would be really easy to do them completely differently. However, with either of these approaches, we lose the reason for being there. We still bring the same winemaking philosophy anywhere we venture, with an unwavering commitment to quality and House Style. But we are also open-minded to new knowledge and regional nuance. I think if we are getting that balance right, we have a genuine reason for being in that country, and I think the wines are better for it too.
Does Penfolds have plans to explore any other countries?
One thing you can always be sure of at Penfolds, is that we constantly have experiments bubbling away behind closed doors. What a lot of people forget is that by the time we are ready to share something new with our community, years (if not decades) of curiosity, trials and exploration and have passed in the lead up. That’s all I can say for now.
What is the most rewarding part of your role as a Penfolds Winemaker?
I’ve never taken for granted the investment and time that my predecessors have given me. The generational passing of knowledge and expertise at Penfolds is priceless. Some of this wisdom, training, and know-how can take up to 30, 40 or 50 years to learn – I feel indebted to them for it. This doesn’t just extend to my predecessors but also my current colleagues.
The most rewarding part of my job is not a glass of wine at the end of the day as many suggest, but rather sharing my learnings, craft and know-how with our new recruits.
Date interviewed: February 2024
