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Lisa Cam

What does it take to become a winemaker for one of the largest producers in the world? For Steph Dutton, a senior winemaker for Penfolds, it started with working in hospitality in Melbourne, Australia, where she was born.
“I was doing my honours [degree] in genetics and, like a lot of good university students, I worked in hospitality and I fell in love with wines of the world through my job,” she says.
“Then I started to do a lot of short courses. I remember going through short course after short course, and getting to a point where I was asked if I wanted to consider doing the long course.”
After earning her degree from the University of Melbourne, she moved to Adelaide to complete a master’s degree in oenology.

Dutton joined Penfolds in 2007 and by 2010 was part of the company’s red-wine making team in the Barossa Valley northeast of Adelaide.
In 2017, she was promoted to senior winemaker, a role that now spans continents.
She has played a crucial role in developing Penfolds’ Californian portfolio, showing her attention to detail and deep understanding of winemaking.
“Viticulture moves very slowly,” she says. “Working in the northern hemisphere started in California and that began with an acquisition of a plot of land back in 1998. It took 20 years before the acquisition and the release of our first wine from California.”
To celebrate its 180th anniversary, Penfolds this year released its commemorative Bin 180 Coonawarra Cabernet Shiraz 2021.

The Bin 180 2021 is made with cabernet sauvignon grapes from block 10, and shiraz grapes from block 5, two of the oldest vineyard plots in South Australia’s Coonawarra wine region.
Asked to describe what kind of vintage the commemorative wine is, Dutton compares it to other vintages decades old.
“I look at this wine and I think of some closely related vintages from our past, like the 2008 Bin 620, the 1966 Bin 620, the 1999 Bin 20,” she says, “even the 1980 Bin 820, and that is based off of what I’ve seen from those regional wines from Coonawarra conservatively.”
She adds: “The [Coonawarra Bin 180 2021] will have 30 years of life in it.”
At the moment we’re doing some early exploratory trial work with grapes from China
Steph Dutton
Penfolds’ 2024 anniversary collection also includes the highly anticipated second release of the brand’s experimental CWT (Chinese Winemaking Trial) 521 Cabernet Sauvignon Marselan, following its inaugural 2021 Chinese vintage.
The first number in the name refers to the wine being made with grapes from five vineyard plots – four in Yunnan province, in southwest China, and one in Ningxia, in north-central China – and the subsequent digits refer to the 2021 vintage.
The 2022-vintage trial wine blends cabernet sauvignon grapes from Yunnan’s Shangri-La region with a higher proportion of marselan grapes from Ningxia than was used for the first release.

“At the moment we’re doing some early exploratory trial work with grapes from China and it’s resulted in a wine that we have to share with collectors and loyalists,” Dutton says.
Asked if Penfolds is looking to acquire real estate in China like it did in California, Dutton says: “At the moment, no, but are we exploring? Absolutely.”


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Australian winemaker for Penfolds on her rise and role in making wine in China, California

A bottle of Bin 180 Coonawarra Cabernet Shiraz 2021 released to mark Penfolds’ 180th anniversary. Photo: Penfolds

Steph Dutton, senior winemaker for Australian producer Penfolds, who has had a role in its northern hemisphere winemaking in California and now China. Steph Dutton. Photo: Penfolds

Penfolds’ 2024 collection, which celebrates the wine producer’s 180th anniversary. Photo: Penfolds

Penfolds’ commemorative 180 Coonawarra Cabernet Shiraz 2021. Photo: Penfolds

Penfolds chief winemaker Peter Gago (left) and colleagues n a vineyard in Shangri-La, in China’s Yunnan province. Photo: Penfolds

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Marco Li Ka-chi of Kwan Kee Bamboo Noodle balancing on a bamboo pole to make noodles. Photo: Llewellyn Cheung

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Lifestyle

Food & Drink

Penfolds senior winemaker Steph Dutton talks about its Californian and Chinese wines, and its 180th anniversary vintage made in Australia


Penfolds senior winemaker Steph Dutton talks about its Californian and Chinese wines, and its 180th anniversary vintage made in Australia.
