Journey to France

A return to the land that inspired Grange.

Our decision to take Penfolds winemaking to France was inevitable.

Even in our earliest days, Penfolds wines were unbound by location – as demand grew, so too did Mary Penfold’s fruit sourcing. First, beyond the boundaries of Magill Estate, then beyond those of South Australia. Her legacy of seeking out quality fruit that best suits style, irrespective of borders, remains a hallmark of our winemaking philosophy.

Bringing Penfolds to France was driven by our determination to craft our signature House Style with each vintage. We forever chase fruit that speaks to our unique Penfolds character.

In 2019 we launched our first partnership wine with family-owned Champagne House Thiénot, marking not only a new chapter for Penfolds, but also a return to France some 70 years in the making.

The Early Penfolds France Story

In 1950, Max Schubert, then Chief Winemaker, was sent to Spain and Portugal to experience and learn techniques that could improve the current offerings.

It was during this trip that Max decided to detour into France to sample the great wines of Bordeaux. It was there that the idea of crafting an Australian wine ‘capable of staying alive for a minimum of twenty years’ first entered his mind.

From this time, France has served as a touch of inspiration and starting point for a number of Penfolds wines, including Bin 138 Grenache Shiraz Mataro and Reserve Bin A Chardonnay. It was not until 2019, however, that we truly returned with our first champagne release, and in 2022 with the inaugural French release.

When talking about key techniques that we use in Australia, it’s not just a copy and paste that we take to France. It’s about understanding the fruit, the terroir and the regions we’re working with, and seeing how the fruit responds to those treatments, while still keeping that Penfolds House Style.

- Shauna Bastow, Penfolds Winemaker

OUR FRENCH REGIONS

Champagne

The historic Champagne wine region is located in North-Eastern France, about 160km east of Paris. Primarily centred around the town of Épernay, the region is regarded as the birthplace of the ‘traditional method’ of sparkling wine production, also known as méthode champenoise.

These famed sparkling wines are generally made from a blend of pinot noir, chardonnay and pinot meunier in varying proportions. Single varietal expressions of each are also very common.

In partnership with Thiénot, we have a quartet of champagne wines featuring four distinct styles. Our Blanc de Noirs and Blanc de Blancs Grand Crus are single vineyard, single varietal wines of pinot noir and chardonnay respectively. Our Vintage Cuvée offers a 50/50 blend of pinot noir and chardonnay, while our final blend comprises all three champagne varietals crafted in a Brut Rosé style.

Peter Gago, Chief Winemaker in the Champagne vineyard

“We have reignited our love affair with sparkling wine, a project Penfolds first explored on Australian soil in the early 1900s. Partnering with Thiénot, a respected player in the world of champagne, Penfolds has worked in tandem with their team to release these extraordinary wines.”

- Peter Gago, Penfolds Chief Winemaker

Bordeaux

One of the world’s most famous wine regions, Bordeaux, is located in South-Western France. Its name being a contraction of au bord de l’eau (meaning at the water’s edge), bodies of water naturally play a crucial role in the unique terroir of the region. The Garonne and the Dordogne rivers meet to form the Gironde, which flows into the Atlantic Ocean and famously separates the greater Bordeaux area into two primary distinctions – the Left Bank and the Right Bank.

Both banks are responsible for world-class multi-varietal red wines, however they do differ in both style and composition. To the left, wines feature cabernet sauvignon in more dominant proportions. To the right, merlot takes the lead.

While single varietal expressions are permitted by the Bordeaux Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC), they are significantly rarer than blends. Other varietals commonly featured in Bordeaux red wines include petit verdot, malbec, cabernet franc, and carménère.

Bordeaux is a natural fit for our House Style, with the art of blending being paramount to the region’s most respected wines. For Penfolds II, a wine made in collaboration with our trusted partner Dourthe Bordeaux, we seek quality cabernet sauvignon and merlot from Bordeaux to blend with Australian shiraz. For FWT 585, we pursue a multi-varietal blend with fruit from Bordeaux’s prized sub-regions, including the Haut-Médoc on the Left Bank.

“In the vineyard, when the fruit is starting to look right for harvest, we’re chasing concentration of flavour with a darker and riper profile. So we tend to keep our grapes on the vine for a bit longer than others in the region.”

- Shauna Bastow, Penfolds Winemaker

THE STORY CONTINUES

We continue to seek opportunities to explore the Penfolds House Style in France. There are many natural crossovers and intersections where we can showcase the nuance of varietal and terroir, while representing our distinct approach to winemaking.

“Our prevailing objective is to remain true to the winemaking ethos of Penfolds, while imagining the possibilities of a world without frontiers.”

- Peter Gago, Penfolds Chief Winemaker

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