Penfolds Magill Estate Cellar Door #Penfolds #wine #magillestate

Modern appropriately scaled architecture really compliments the heritage buildings nearby

Yesterday I visited the new Penfolds Magill Estate Cellar Door and Magill Estate Kitchen - only opened last week. The cellar door and kitchen compliment the already established and high end Magill Estate Restaurant. In today's post I will focus on the cellar door and leave the wonderful kitchen experience for a further post.

The new multi-million dollar cellar door and kitchen sits alongside the old 

Penfolds buildings at Magill.

That beautiful bluestone again.

Penfolds was established in 1844 by Dr Christopher and Mary Penfold. While Penfolds vineyards can be found all over the state, the Magill vineyard and Magill Estate is only a 15 minute drive from the CBD.

Penfolds is known around the world for its iconic wine, Grange.  Originally known as Grange Hermitage, the wine was first made by Penfold's Chief Wine Maker, Max Schubert in 1951.  

Schubert was a pioneer of the multi-vineyard, multi-district blending philosophy but his first few years of Grange Hermitage were not viewed well by the board and he was ordered to stop making the blended wine. 

Luckily Schubert was a persistent fellow and kept on making Grange and hid his vintages in underground cellars at Magill Estate until the board change their minds in 1959.  

In addition to the small 5.24 hectare vineyard at Magill Estate (that is hand pruned and picked) Penfolds has vineyards in the Barossa  (Koonunga Hill, Kalimna, Stonewall, the Waltons, Zilm, Barossa Valley), McLaren Vale (Bethany, Bencowe, Booths), the Coonawarra and Robe.

Penfolds has dozens of wines, with their high-end wines listed under the
Penfolds Collection (including Grange, Yattarna, Bin 707 Cabernet Sauvignon,
Magill Estate Shiraz, St Henri Shiraz, Bin 28 Kalimna Shiraz etc.),
 to Cellar Reserves, Ports and Sherries and their entry
level table wines, Koonunga Hill.

The Magill Estate Shiraz range started in 1983

At the Magill Estate Cellar door you can choose from a $10 - $20 wine tasting 

selection.  The cellar door is opened from 9 to 6 every day.

Tomorrow I'll post on the Magill Estate Kitchen experience.