2019 is the 175th anniversary of the founding of Penfolds – Australia’s oldest and most iconic wine brand – by Mary and Christopher Rawson Penfold at Magill Estate, South Australia in 1844. Whilst the reputation of Penfolds is typically synonymous with Max Schubert’s creation of the wine Grange in the twentieth century, it was Mary Penfold, as the winery’s first winemaker and co-founder, who brought these wines their earliest global acclaim and accolades.

This paper examines women such as Mary who were exhibitors and award winners of Australian colonial wines on the international and intercolonial exhibition circuit of the nineteenth century. Twelve women succeeded in showing wine in their colony’s main pavilion as a general exhibit, despite the reluctance of exhibition organizers to give much accommodation outside the ladies’ court. Two principal motivations are attributed to these women for exhibiting wine. They were either entrepreneurs exhibiting to promote the wine business or widows exhibiting their recently deceased husband’s wines as a secular material memorialisation.

Fleur Goldthorpe is a PhD candidate in the School of History at the Australian National University undertaking the research project ‘British Women of the Portocracy: Port Wine Dinastias, Family and Transcultural Lives, 1678-1855.’ In 2018, Fleur was awarded the National Council of Women (NSW) Australian History Award in recognition of research examining women exhibitors of Australian colonial wine at international and intercolonial exhibitions during the nineteenth century. As a wine historian she focuses on highlighting women's contributions to the wine industry in the hope that their stories will inspire more women today to enter and remain in the trade.

This event is run by the School of History, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences