INSIDER MAGAZINE: Q&A with Peter Gago, chief winemaker at Penfolds

What’s the best financial advice you’ve been given? Buy a house as quickly as you can, especially back in the day when interest rates were a little more user-friendly. How do you manage work/life balance? Not with much luck. No, you have to incorporate your life balance into your work, I think. You can’t be thinking nine-to-five, you’ve got enjoy what you do — in an ideal world. If you enjoy that life, then you continue in that profession. What is one thing that others have underestimated about you? They often say that the two greatest traits of a winemaker are resilience and tenacity. Maybe I’m pumped up on both of those traits. What drives you to succeed? Look, it’s not like an ambition or a dynasty kind of pursuit to whatever, it’s just wanting to do things properly. Favourite holiday destination? Well, I’ll tell what my wife’s favourite holiday destination is, because we’ve been married for 40 years now. Together for 43, married for 40. She tries to take me to places where wine isn’t part of the furniture. Where there’s no vineyards, wineries or whatever. She’s had very little success. Even in Egypt we found places… We have gone to Champagne numerous times and she loves it, but if we go to those places, I’m usually nabbed. So we go to places where I won’t be nabbed. We did find it earlier this year for our 40th wedding anniversary, we went to Lord Howe Island — but I did find a bottle shop there. Chocolate or cheese? I have a sweet tooth, but I like both. What are you binge-watching right now? I don’t really have time. I like watching movies where I can go ‘I’ve been there’ or ‘I would like to go there’. I binge-watched Succession on planes. I did watch a documentary on a plane back from China a couple of weeks ago … they had a great documentary on Notre Dame burning down. It was really interesting. The firemen going in, molten lead was dripping on their heads. They had to send in this robot, this cyclops with a hose attached… it was fascinating to watch that. But, yeah, most of my movies have been on aeroplanes. Read any good books lately? I’m reading, would you believe, a sort of marketing book. I want to find out what some of these acronyms are. I’m reading a book at the moment called The Luxury Strategy by Jean-Noel Kapferer and Vincent Bastien. In Australia we have the cultural cringe and the tall poppy thing. I was thinking, Australia needs a luxury brand. I’m not necessarily saying it should be Penfolds, but we do bandy about the word ‘luxury’ a bit. They do it so well in France and over here we have the cultural cringe, but why can’t we do a little bit of what they do from a wine perspective. Luxury doesn’t have to be about price. I’m reading that just to understand the nomenclature and language. It’s heavy-going. I’m up to page 51. If you were to invite three dinner guests, dead or alive, who would they be? Maybe musicians — classical through to current. Let’s go current. It would probably be Bruce Springsteen, Dave Grohl and Paul McCartney. What a trio that would be. And they’re all still alive. I’ve met two of them, but I have never met a Beatle. That’s musicians. Other great people, where do you start? What was the last band that you paid to see? I didn’t pay but I got in backstage with Kings of Leon at Sidney Myer Music Bowl not so long back. I would really like to see Paul McCartney. The last band was Ed Sheeran, I was incorrect there. And that was at Adelaide Oval. Who is your childhood hero? Growing up, I’m just trying to think of people of that era so I just don’t fabricate this … someone who really did impress. American presidents like JFK. Why not? JFK. Who would play you in a movie of your life? I don’t know. Ideally a nephew or someone related.