How Peter Gago, chief vintner at Penfolds, fell in love

"I was born in the north of England and moved to Australia when I was five. I don't come from an eighth-generation-of-wine family, but a family that drinks wine a little bit but is not as passionate about it. For a lot of people, wine [appreciation] is something that happens a bit later. You start at university, when you drink beer and margaritas. As you delve into wine, you develop different values and think, 'Hang on, it's not just alcohol.' Wine makes you want to go slower - to sip, taste and learn about it, rather than throw back a shot of something, or drink a beer quickly while it's still cold. That awareness comes with time. There was [no wine] epiphany that changed my life. It was a gradual immersion."

"It really was a love of wine. In winemaking the hours are ridiculous - our harvest starts in February and finishes in May [during which time, you work] seven days a week. You can't sustain it if [the love is] not real. My job has great appeal. We're farmers - we spend more time in the vineyard than anywhere else - and then we're in the winery as a manufacturer. Outside of the winery, we do the artistic work of blending and crafting. It's pseudo-science, pseudo-art and a bit of alchemy. There's also the communication and public relations role. I can honestly say in my 25 years with Penfolds, no two days have ever been the same. How inviting, provoking and interesting is that? People who like most of what they do are very lucky. I always say I'm a wine lover first, a wine collector second and a winemaker third."

"There's an expression: horses for courses. If you're going to have a dinner party tonight, you're not going to open a 1990 Grange and just throw it back. Maybe you are a billionaire and do drink that midweek, but most people don't. So maybe for midweek, a glass or two of shiraz-cabernet with a meal and then on a Friday night you go out to a restaurant and there's that Bin 389 by the glass. It's a bit expensive, but I would have a glass. When you celebrate your birthday, you open a special bottle - a bottle of Grange you've saved up for. What we're offering with our portfolio is choice - occasional choice, stylistic choice. We do rieslings, beautiful aromatic wines, semillon-sauvignon blanc, or maybe you want to go with a complex chardonnay or pinot noir."

"Well, they are, but there's also a bit of a hidden code when you get into the world of Penfolds. Our book tells you the drinking windows, when to drink different styles, and takes you through all the different wines and how they're made. It's a reference. That's part of the education. Penfolds wines are made with style. The portfolio has evolved over 170 years. We don't sell all of the wines we make into the [overseas] market because I've got the impression that some find the bin numbers a bit confusing. But Bin 128 is always a Coonawarra shiraz every year - it's like a name and a shortcut. Bin 407 would always be a cabernet with French-American oak and made in the same style. It's confusing - until they get into it."