NEW BEGINNINGS

Penfolds is a beloved Australian wine entity built on a foundation of courage, innovation and foresight. For more than 175 years it has featured prominently in

Australian life (and many export markets) giving generations of wine drinkers some of the most consistently reliable,

generous and flavourful wines in the world.

The Penfolds story begins with the 1844 arrival of pioneering founders Mary and Dr Christopher Penfold, just eight years after the foundation of South Australia. Three months after arriving in Adelaide, they purchased 500 acres of prime land at Mackgill (Mag ll) and set up a medical surgery and vineyard, along with an orchard and crops of wheat, barley and oats. Their mixed farm was called The Grange and it soon became a prominent colonial enterprise. The first wines made by Mary and Christopher Penfold were prescribed as a tonic for patients suffering from anaemia like many medical practitioners of the time, Dr Penfold s interest in wine was based on its perceived health benefits. As the company grew, so too did Dr Penfold s medical reputation, and so he left much of the running of the winery to his wife Mary, who was widely respected for her winemaking and agribusiness skills.

By the 1860s, Penfolds was shipping wine to other Australian colonies, mainly Victoria, which was flush with capital from the gold rush. After Christopher Penfold died in 1870, newly widowed Mary widened the foundations of the family business, working with Thomas Francis Hyland

(who had married her daughter Georgina) and hiring winemaker Joseph Gillard to expand the cellars at Magill. Joseph Gillard and Thomas Hyland became partners in the business in 1881.

By 1881 global recognition for Penfolds wines had started to grow significantly and a formal partnership between Mary, her son-in-law and winemaker Joseph Gillard was established. Not only was the winery producing over one third of South Australia s wine, Penfolds Tawny Port won a gold medal at the 1889 Paris Exhibition and Mary Penfold received a trophy for a white wine of light character in 1890. By 1894 Penfolds No. 1 Claret and Chablis were considered the best dry wines in Australia, according to an article that ran in the West Australian newspaper that same year. 

When Mary Penfold passed away in 1895, at around 77 years of age, control of the business passed to her daughter Georgina and son-in-law Thomas. Their children Frank and Herbert Penfold-Hyland took over in 1905 and expanded Penfolds into a flourishing wine company trading in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, India, Japan and China.

The original working winery at Penfolds Magill Estate, the spiritual home of Penfolds

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