controlled and stabilised, he established a unique wine based on warm climate shiraz fruit, barrel fermented at the end of vinification, and matured in American oak hogsheads. But this ground-breaking new style polarised opinions. In 1957, Max Schubert was asked to show his efforts in Sydney to top management, invited wine identities and personal friends of the board. To his horror and embarrassment, the Grange experiment was universally disliked. One critic observed, ‘Schubert, I congratulate you. A very good, dry port, which no one in their right mind will buy – let alone drink.’ Gladys Penfold-Hyland, the autocratic chairman of the Board, finally ordered Schubert to stop making Grange. ‘Stocky in build, but generally dressed in beautifully tailored suits’, she ruled the family business with an iron rod. Defiance of such an order meant certain dismissal and severe loss of face. Max Schubert’s Grange project was doomed. His ambitions
Penfolds Grange
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