Penley Estate

Winemaker: Kate Goodman

2024 Winemaker of the Year
Kate Goodman, Penley Estate – Coonawarra, South Australia

Kate says winning Winemaker of the Year is a huge honour and possibly a bit embarrassing. “We all love to be told that we're doing a great job, and this is exactly that. But it’s also being acutely aware of what we're doing. And I think the more you learn when you're making wine, the more you trust those gut instincts. It just starts to come naturally to you.” 

Winemaker of the Year is all about ‘best winemaking practice’ but it’s also about significance, and importance, of the stamp the person has or is making on the Australian wine landscape. Kate Goodman is one of those people who is passionate about the job at hand, or she’s not doing it. She puts her heart and soul into every wine she makes. She’s done this at Wirra Wirra, Tim Knappstein, Seppelt and Punt Road in the past, as well as with her personal winemaking projects. But it’s at Penley that she’s taken wine by the scruff of the neck and given it an almighty shake. – Campbell Mattinson

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The wine-making history dates back to 1844, but it really began with a red sports car in 1945. It was a collision of hearts and minds, a collision that had been 100 years in the making – refined and distilled from two pioneering winemaking families.

However, it wasn’t until 1988 that the Penley name came to life, that it finally bore fruit, so to speak. That’s when we (the children of Reginald and Judith) decided to create their own wines – put their label on tradition.