'Peter Gago's troubleshooter': New Penfolds Director of Winemaking Steph Dutton reveals her priorities across the company's global empire

Sky News AU

24-07-2025

Introducing Steph Dutton, the new director of winemaking at Penfolds, Australia's greatest wine company.
The 39-year-old Melbourne Girls Grammar old girl answers to Peter Gago, the legendary Penfolds chief winemaker who led the vintner's audacious push into US, China and France.
The arrival of Penfolds as a global winemaking powerhouse is on show with its new Australian releases where local treasures like Grange, RWT and Bin 389 compete with vintages from the other side of the globe.
Under the guidance of Gago and Dutton, Penfolds now manicures a universal vineyard straddling the two hemispheres.
At any time in either the Barossa, Coonawarra, Coal River or Napa valleys or at Ningxia in the aptly named Shangri-La vineyards in China, or further south in Yunnan near the Burma border, the grapes are ripening.
Penfolds also has an ongoing collaboration with Champagne Thiénot and its holding company Treasury Wine Estates owns the Chianti winery Castello di Gabbiano in Tuscany (a pleasant 37-minute drive south of Florence) and more wineries at Marlborough in New Zealand.
Dutton has emerged as Gago's troubleshooter across an impressive portfolio of properties that now includes Château Lanessan in Bordeaux.
She says it is an honour for an Australia firm to take charge at the left bank Lanessan vineyard which has been owned by a succession of eight generations of the Bouteiller family.
The 390ha of land in the Haut-Médoc appellation has 80ha under vine, she said.
It produces cabernet sauvignon, merlot, and petit verdot.
Dutton, a mother of two whose parents were advertising executives, climbed the ranks from senior winemaker to group winemaker before being named the director of winemaking.
She and her husband Andrew 'Baldy' Baldwin, another gun winemaker at Penfolds, had six-month stints together directing operations at the Penfolds vineyards in Napa and at Paso Robles. They were on a steep learning curve, she said.
'Napa cabernet tannins are very different to Australian tannins for example, so getting to know which barrels were going to match which tannins in different regions is a challenge.'
If there was a problem, it has resolved itself spectacularly in Penfolds Bin 704 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2022, a sumptuous offering bottled after 16 months in French oak barriques.
Dutton grasps the historical significance of the bold Bordeaux acquisitions and the equally brave push into China and California.
Lanessan contains two chateaux, one derelict. TWA has just appointed French architects for a major restoration of the cellar door and winery.
TWE has a second left bank winery 15 minutes away at Château Cambon la Pelouse at Macau on the road leading to Margaux and Pauillac.
TWE purchased the property in 2019.
Dutton sees room for expansion.
She already had her masters in genetic science before completing her winemaking degree.
So how does she keep the predominantly male winemakers in line?
'You can't. It's impossible to keep these guys in line,' she said.
She modified her answer by saying she doesn't have to.
'The Southern hemisphere crew in Australia are pretty well established and know what they are doing.
'The big focus for me in the last couple of years is making sure we are authentically and highly skilled in the northern hemisphere as well.'
Penfolds winemaker Shauna Bastow is now living permanently in Bordeaux guiding the experimental FWT (French Winemaking Trial) series, including the FWT 585, a cabernet, merlot, and petit verdot blend.
However Dutton is the 'boots on the ground' winemaker in sites where the same variety of grapes produce different flavour profiles.
'As you know the art of blending is incredibly important for us at Penfolds,' she said.
'In France, we want flexibility to bring in little grower plots, both from our own vineyards and our grower network there _ just as we do in Australia.
'Our immediate priority is getting Chateau Lanessan in tip top shape.'
Dutton says it is a personal goal to create another iconic wine from the Lanessan fruit.
'It might come next year, or it may take eight years. We are still doing the work.'
She wants to plant another 20ha of vines at Lanessan while 'rejuvenating' 15ha of existing vines.
As the flagship and luxury brand of TWE, Dutton says Penfolds aspires to be the 'best of the best'.
'The combination of a grower network and owned fruit gives you more blending opportunities and options,' she said.
'And it is a little bit of an insurance policy in sourcing from vintage to vintage. We are still finding our feet.'
'We have trials going all the time at Penfolds.' Some have begun in right bank territory and Penfolds is looking at syrah in the Northern Rhone Valley.'
She and Baldy often sip chardonnay on Friday night.
'We have slightly different tastes. Baldy does love the softer more voluptuous chardonnays while I tend to look for some of the racier styles. There are some that race across the palate and some that expand across the palate and the best examples do a little both of both.'
And if you ask a Penfolds winemaker for their favourite wines they will probably nominate three or four, she said.
St Henri will invariably be among them.
'For me, St Henri is an example of a highly saturated wine, full in body but still elegant,' Ms Dutton said.
It is often described as a counterpoint to Grange because it shows little, if any, oak.
Penfolds St Henri Shiraz 2022 has a commanding bouquet of black fruits, plum and licorice leading to a richly layered palate. It will gain soft, mocha-like characters with age.
Penfolds Grange 2021 is another blending masterclass that will have the serious collectors queuing up.
Grange doesn't get much better than this.
I scored it 98 points.
There is a remarkable synergy from grapes harvested in the Barossa Valley (66 percent), McLaren Vale (26) and Clare Valley (eight).
This year's edition has six percent cabernet sauvignon.
Mr Gago's tasting notes described it best: 'A vortex of mid-palate sumptuousness flanked by sleek, dusty tannins and chocolatey brûléed-suggestive oak.'
Where did the flavour come from? Perhaps the Clare delivered Dutch liquorice and menthol, he muses. The Barossa berries contributed the dark satsuma plum, star anise and roasted quince notes while the Worcestershire sauce, squid ink, corned beef and peppercorn notes were delivered from McLaren Vale fruit.
The wine was matured for 18 months in American oak hogsheads. (100 percent new)
- More reviews next week.