John Duval

By consensus John Duval, is one of the most highly regarded winemakers of his era. His passion for the wine industry developed from a young age. John grew up on a farm in Morphett Vale near Adelaide, where his father and grandfather also grew grapes.

His family's association with Penfolds goes back many years as the company bought Shiraz grapes and also cuttings from the Duval's Morphett Vale vineyard to plant at Penfolds Magill Estate Vineyard.

After completing an Agricultural Science Degree at Adelaide University and a post-graduate diploma in Oenology at Roseworthy College, John joined Penfolds in 1974 at Nuriootpa in the Barossa Valley. As an Assistant Winemaker he gained early experience working under Managers, John Davoren and Kevin Schroeter. During the next 12 years he polished his skills as Winemaker under the influence of Max Schubert and Chief Winemaker, Don Ditter. When Don retired in 1986 John took over as Chief Winemaker, a position he held for the next 16 years.

In 1989 John was named International Winemaker of the Year at Britain's 1989 International Wine & Spirit Competition. In 1991, and again in 2000, he was named Red Winemaker of the Year at the International Wine Challenge held annually in London.

Duval is quick to point out that winemaking at Penfolds has always been a team effort: "None of the success and the accolades for the wines would be possible without the contribution of the growers and the Penfolds Viticulture and Winemaking teams".

During his time as Chief Winemaker, John oversaw a great many developments in the Penfolds range including the creation of Bin 407 Cabernet Sauvignon in 1990 and Bin 138 Old Vine Barossa Valley Shiraz-Grenache-Mourvédre in 1992. Two years later came the Rawson's Retreat range which was initially developed for the UK market and has since been released in Australia, New Zealand, Asia and North America.

In 1992 John and his white winemaking team began the white wine trials that soon became known as the "White Grange" project. In 1998 John and his team released the first Yattarna from the 1995 vintage. It was one of the most widely anticipated wine releases of its time. The development of Yattarna involved a number of trial wines, which have been released as Reserve Bin Wines, commencing with Bin 94A Chardonnay.

At the same time that the Yattarna trials were underway, John and his red winemaking team were working on developing a wine sourced solely from the Barossa Valley. Named RWT Shiraz after the three letter generic code given to the wine during it's development, the inaugural 1997 vintage was released to great critical acclaim in 2000.

John Duval has been a regular judge at Australian and International wine shows for the last 20 years and has travelled extensively representing Penfolds in many forums and wine tasting events.

At the end of 2002 John handed over the Chief Winemaker mantle to Peter Gago, and retired from Southcorp after a distinguished career of 28 years, including 16 as the Chief Winemaker for Penfolds as well as Joint Chief Winemaker for Southcorp.

View biographies:

Max Schubert

Don Ditter

John Duval

Steve Lienert

Oliver Crawford

Peter Gago