Winemaker of the Year

2024 Winemaker of the Year

Kate Goodman, Penley Estate – Coonawarra, South Australia

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 was appointed as the winemaker at Penley Estate in 2016.

One of the first things Ang and Bec Tolley – owners of Penley Estate – did when their winemaking brother, Kym, retired was to appoint gun winemaker Kate Goodman to the post. It turns out to have been one of the best decisions they’ve ever made. Ang and Bec took over the running of the business outright in 2015, appointed Goodman in 2016, and she almost immediately set about a grand re-think of every wine the estate did (or didn’t) make.

We hesitate to mention this, given that it has nothing to do with Goodman’s winemaking, but in 2017 she was diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, and so what she has since achieved is in the context of an intense and lengthy personal health battle.

And oh my, what she has achieved. First and foremost, she has elevated the estate’s traditional cabernet sauvignon (and cabernet-based) wines, so that they now stand toe-to-toe with Coonawarra’s best. These wines will mature magnificently. This award may well be her due on the strength of these wines alone, but then the energy, excitement and vigour she has built into the Penley range as a complement to its traditional base is, quite simply, a glory to behold. 

Preservative-free cabernet sauvignon, whole-bunch shiraz, whole-bunch cabernet, assorted field blends, concrete egg-fermented (and matured) cabernet,  raised in amphorae, varietal cabernet franc, wine released in 2L casks, and wine bottled in lightweight glass. Put all these developments to the Penley range together and it amounts to a ground-breaking shift for both the estate and for the Coonawarra region.

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

Kate says Coonawarra is a region of great, great beauty that produces world-class cabernet.

“We're really trying to make fresher, brighter, more energetic wines that really do show where they are and where they come from,” says Kate Goodman. “[Coonawarra is] certainly not one of the glamour regions at the moment – for some reason that I don’t understand because it can produce absolutely world-class cabernet and it is a region of great, great beauty.” 

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.” 

2024 Winemaker of the Year

Previous Winemaker of the Year recipients include Robert Diletti (2015), Peter Fraser (2016), Sarah Crowe (2017), Paul Hotker (2018), Julian Langworthy (2019), Vanya Cullen (2020), Brett Grocke (2021), Michael Dhillon (2022) and Glenn Goodall (2023).

The 2024 Halliday Wine Companion is available now. Secure your copy of Australia's most comprehensive wine guide here – and at all good bookstores.

This is an edited extract from the 2024 Halliday Wine Companion, with reviews by James Halliday, Campbell Mattinson, Dave Brookes, Jane Faulkner, Jeni Port, Mike Bennie, Ned Goodwin MW, Philip Rich and Shanteh Wale. Cover art by Ka Mo.