Peter Gago (born 25 April 1957) is a

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal A ...

winemaker A winemaker or vintner is a person engaged in winemaking. They are generally employed by wineries or wine companies, where their work includes: *Cooperating with viticulturists *Monitoring the maturity of grapes to ensure their quality and to dete ...

and

author An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

. Gago has been chief winemaker at

Penfolds Penfolds is an Australian wine producer that was founded in Adelaide in 1844 by Christopher Rawson Penfold, an English physician who emigrated to Australia, and his wife Mary Penfold. It is one of Australia's oldest wineries, and is currently p ...

and custodian of

Penfolds Grange Penfolds Grange (until the 1989 vintage labelled Penfolds Grange Hermitage) is an Australian wine, made predominantly from the Shiraz (Syrah) grape and usually a small percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon. It is widely considered one of Australia's ...

since 2002, the most iconic

Australian wine The Australian wine industry is one of the world's largest exporters of wine, with approximately 800 million out of the 1.2 to 1.3 billion litres produced annually exported to overseas markets. The wine industry is a significant contributor ...

Early life

Gago was born in

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

, where he lived until the age of six before emigrating to Australia, settling in

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/ Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a metro ...

. He became a high school teacher of

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

and

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the elements that make up matter to the compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions: their composition, structure, proper ...

in the early 1980s after graduating from the

University of Melbourne The University of Melbourne is a public research university located in Melbourne, Australia. Founded in 1853, it is Australia's second oldest university and the oldest in Victoria. Its main campus is located in Parkville, an inner suburb ...

with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

. At age twenty-nine, he undertook a Bachelor of Applied Science (

Oenology Oenology (also enology; ) is the science and study of wine and winemaking. Oenology is distinct from viticulture, which is the science of the growing, cultivation, and harvesting of grapes. The English word oenology derives from the Greek word ' ...

) degree at

Roseworthy College Roseworthy Agricultural College was an agricultural college in Australia. It was north of Adelaide and west of Roseworthy town. It was the first agricultural college in Australia, established in 1883. It is now part of the University of Adela ...

, graduating as dux.Peter Gago, Penfolds Chief Winemaker: Penfolds Wines
/ref>Peter and Gail Gago - South Australia's power couple: The Advertiser 21 June 2013
/ref>

Penfolds

Gago started a job with

Wines in 1989, initially producing

sparkling wine Sparkling wine is a wine with significant levels of carbon dioxide in it, making it fizzy. While the phrase commonly refers to champagne, European Union countries legally reserve that term for products exclusively produced in the Champagne regi ...

before moving on to reds, and eventually being made Penfolds Red Wine Oenologist. Gago succeeded John Duval as Penfolds Chief Winemaker in 2002, becoming only the fourth person to hold the position since Max Schubert was first appointed in 1948. Gago has been involved with the market promotion of Penfolds wines since the early 1990s, travelling extensively to attend wine shows and conduct tastings and master classes. On winemaking, he has said, "I would not say that my style is particularly evident in the winemaking, although I'm a firm believer in no

filtration Filtration is a physical separation process that separates solid matter and fluid from a mixture using a ''filter medium'' that has a complex structure through which only the fluid can pass. Solid particles that cannot pass through the filter ...

or fining, natural

yeast Yeasts are eukaryotic, single-celled microorganisms classified as members of the fungus kingdom. The first yeast originated hundreds of millions of years ago, and at least 1,500 species are currently recognized. They are estimated to constit ...

, open-top

fermenting Fermentation is a metabolic process that produces chemical changes in organic substrates through the action of enzymes. In biochemistry, it is narrowly defined as the extraction of energy from carbohydrates in the absence of oxygen. In food p ...

and other noninvasive techniques. For me, it's about knowing when to interfere and when to stay out of the way".

Awards

Gago was named 2005 Winemaker of the Year by ''

Wine Enthusiast Magazine ''Wine Enthusiast'' magazine is an American wine magazine published by Wine Enthusiast Companies in Valhalla, New York. Founded in 1979 by Adam and Sybil Strum, Wine Enthusiast Companies engages in the wine accessories, storage, information, educat ...

''. He was named 2012 Winemakers’ Winemaker of the Year by

Institute of Masters of Wine An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes can ...

and international trade publication ''

The Drinks Business ''The Drinks Business'' is a monthly international B2B magazine and website published by Union Press. The magazine discusses the latest news and trends in the global beer, wine and spirits industries. History and profile thedrinksbusiness.com w ...

''.SA winemaker Peter Gago named world's best winemaker: The Advertiser 6 March 2012
/ref>

Personal life

He is married to

Gail Gago Gail Elizabeth Gago (; born 4 July 1957) is a retired Australian politician, and a member of the Labor Party in the South Australian Legislative Council from the 2002 election until her retirement in 2018. Background Gago was born in Mooroo ...

, a

Labor Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the la ...

member of the

South Australian Legislative Council The Legislative Council, or upper house, is one of the two chambers of the Parliament of South Australia. Its central purpose is to act as a house of review for legislation passed through the lower house, the House of Assembly. It sits in Par ...

Books

* ''Discovering Australian Wine : A Taster's Guide'' (1995), * ''Australian Wine : From the Vine to the Glass'' (1997), * ''Australian Wine : Styles and Tastes'' (2002), The books were co-authored with Patrick Iland.

Early life

Penfolds

Awards

Personal life

Books

See also

References

Further reading