Mary Penfold takes on building and blending Magill family winery into becoming largest in Adelaide region by 1903
Christopher and Mary Penfold (inset) and part of the Magill Estate vineyards they established during the 1840s in the Adelaide foothills that remains not far from Adelaide city centre.
Main image courtesy Denizen Navigator
With family support In England, Christopher and Mary Penfold bought the 500-acre Magill (originally “Mackgill”) Estate in the Adelaide foothills site unseen from South Australian colonial pioneers Robert Cock and William Ferguson.
The Penfolds arrived from West Sussex in 1844, with Ellen Kimbrell, their maid, daughter Georgina’s nurse and future assistant winemaker. Around their cottage (“The Grange”), the couple planted French vine cuttings brought from England.
A doctor, Christopher believed in the medicinal benefits of wine that he and Mary would use as a tonic to treat anaemia. Christopher set up his practice on the eastern outskirts of Adelaide and the Penfolds’ fortified wines, sherry and port, were for Christopher's patients. As demand for the wines increased, the winery expanded and was officially established in 1844. The Penfolds found clarets and rieslings also both easy to produce and popular.
As Christopher's medical services increased, Mary devoted more time to operating the winery, including cultivating the vines and grape blending She took over running the winery when her husband died in 1870 aged 59. By this time, the business had grown to more than 60 acres with grape varieties including grenache, verdelho, mataro (mourvedre), frontignac and pedro ximenez, and the estate was “producing both sweet and dry red and white table wines with a growing market in Victoria and New South Wales”.
The Penfolds' son-in-law, Thomas Francis Hyland, unaware of Mary's key role, urged her to sell the business and retire. Mary didn’t accept Hyland's advice, and brokered a partnership with Hyland staying in Melbourne, while Mary continued her winery work. In 1874, Adelaide’s Register reported that Mary was supervising the blending wines two or three years old, entirely according to her judgement and taste. “About 20,000 gallons of wine of that age (was) ready for the market”, with a “total stock ... close upon 90,000 gallons”.
Mary explored new methods of wine production, looked into combating diseases like phylloxera and engaged cellar master Joseph Gillard. Mary retired in 1884, aged 68; when the winery owned about a third of South Australia's wine stores, and had presented at a colonial exhibition in London. After Mary retired, her daughter Georgina and son-in-law Thomas Hyland took over running the winery. The business was passed onto their two sons and two daughters.
In 1903, Penfolds was Adelaide region’s largest winery, producing 450,000 litres. Between 1904 and 1912, it bought more vineyards in McLaren Vale and New South Wales. The Penfold family operated the business successfully, making in public in 1962 and retaining control until 1976.
