Mary Penfold

The inspiring story of Mary Penfold, the mother of the Australian wine industry - a self-taught vintner and business genius who emigrated to a frontier settlement and built her family's small vineyard into one of the world's most respected winemakers

Shortlisted for the Lord Mayor of Brisbane's People's Choice Queensland Book of the Year Award 2026

Bestselling author and biographer Grantlee Kieza turns his focus to the birth of the Australian wine industry and the mother, business leader and pioneering vintner Mary Penfold, who grew her garden vineyard into a world renowned wine empire.

Closely related to one of the world's wealthiest families, Mary was a new mother when she packed up her baby daughter and left all the comforts of her seaside home in England in 1844 to follow her husband Dr Christopher Rawson Penfold as he chased his dream of starting a new life in the infant colony of South Australia.

Mary and Christopher settled on a farm in the Adelaide Hills, and as Christopher made his rounds visiting patients on horseback, Mary and her maid Ellen Timbrell tended grapevines that the Penfolds had sourced from the south of France and planted in the garden beside their stone cottage, which they named The Grange.

At first the wines Mary made were used as tonics for Christopher's patients, but at a time when women were often excluded from commerce and given little recognition for their business endeavours, Mary transformed her cottage industry into an empire. She expanded her vineyard, developed new styles of her product and built a flourishing company that supplied not only Australia's demand for high quality wine, but thirsty export markets as well.

Wine had been part of the Australian landscape since the First Fleet delivered vines along with the convicts and free settlers to Sydney Cove in 1788, and 'The Commander in Chief', as Mary was affectionately known, helped make the Australian wine industry the envy of the world. Riding her white mare and using her spy glass among the vines to oversee her creation, her brilliance as a vintner and great business mind lives on today with Penfolds Grange being one of the most sought after wines in the world.

PRAISE

'An uplifting tale of dreams and resolution ... A life as rich as the wines Mary worked so hard to make' Sydney Morning Herald

'An inspiring portrait .. A pioneer who proved that women could lead in industry at a time when they were rarely acknowledged' Books+Publishing