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About Mary Penfold (Unabridged)

Bestselling biographer Grantlee Kieza turns his focus to the mother of the Australian wine industry: business leader and pioneering vintner Mary Penfold, whose cottage vineyard became a world-renowned wine empire.

Mary Penfold packed up her baby daughter 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. The family settled on a farm beneath the Adelaide Hills, and, while Christopher made his rounds visiting patients, Mary and her maid, Ellen Timbrell, tended the grapevines that the Penfolds had sourced from the south of France and planted beside their stone cottage, The Grange.

At a time when women were often excluded from commerce, Mary transformed her cottage industry into a thriving business 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, and 'The Commander in Chief', as Mary was affectionately known, helped make the Australian wine industry the envy of the world. Her brilliance as a vintner and great business mind lives on today, with Penfolds Grange being one of the most sought-after vintages in the world.