Arrival of Penfolds in Australia Christopher and Mary Penfold arrived in Australia from
Angmering,
West Sussex, UK, at the respective ages of 33 and 24,
Establishment of winery Initially, the Penfolds produced
fortified wines in the style of
sherry and
port for Christopher's patients. As demand for the wines increased, the winery was expanded and was officially established in 1844. In addition to sherry and port, the Penfolds discovered that clarets and rieslings were both easy to produce and popular. As the demand for Christopher's medical services increased, Mary was required to devote more time to the operation of the winery, and her tasks included the cultivation of the vines and grape blending. The Penfold family retained a controlling interest until 1976.
Early 20th Century In 1903, Penfolds was the largest winery in the Adelaide region, with a production total of of wine. Between 1904 and 1912, more vineyards in
McLaren Vale and
New South Wales were purchased. During the 1940s and 1950s, the company changed its focus and commenced the production of
table wines to accommodate changing tastes. This new direction led to experiments by Penfolds' chief winemaker,
Max Schubert, who backed by the chair of the board visited
Europe following the end of
World War II to learn about sherry production;
Tooth and Co. In 1976, control of Penfolds was acquired by
Tooth and Co., a
brewer based in
New South Wales, which in 1982 became part of the
Adelaide Steamship Company Group. In 1990,
SA Brewing purchased Adelaide Steamship's wineries. Subsequently, SA Brewing was divided into three separate entities: the brewing assets retained the S.A. Brewing name, the wine assets were named
Southcorp Wines, and the '
white goods' and other manufacturing interests became Southcorp, an Australian conglomerate. It was also in 1976 that Schubert stood down from the position of Penfolds Chief Winemaker, a role that was passed onto Don Ditter. Since then, Penfolds operates two wineries: Magill Estate, at the base of Adelaide's eastern foothills, and
Nuriootpa in the
Barossa Valley. In June 2012 Penfolds released a limited edition run of the "2004 Block 42" wine that was only sold in glass ampoules. The wine was labelled by the
Huffington Post publication as "the most expensive wine directly sold from a winery in the world", as the winery sought US$168,000 for each of the ampoules. The glass ampoules were designed and hand-blown by Australian glass artist Nick Mount. ==Vineyards==