This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
News
Penfolds’ Gago honoured with science award
Penfolds’ chief winemaker Peter Gago has been honoured with a Bragg Membership, an award which recognises scientific excellence and commitment to science communication.
Peter Gago has been Penfolds’ chief winemaker since 2002
Presided over by The Royal Institution of Australia, the award is named after the prominent Australian scientists Sir William Henry Bragg and Sir William Lawrence Bragg.
Honorary Bragg Membership is the highest category of membership awarded by The Royal Institution of Australia, with winemaker Peter Gago this year named as one of five inductees to join an exclusive group of just 31 worldwide.
Gago, who has held the position of chief winemaker of Penfolds since 2002, and is only the fourth appointed since Max Schubert was first appointed in 1948, said he was “shocked, delighted and humbled” to be inducted as a Bragg Member.
“I am delighted as I am honoured to represent the pursuits of the many practitioners of the ancient discipline of oenology, humbled at joining eminent and world-renowned scientists and shocked to have been chosen on the right side of 60”, said Mr Gago.
A science graduate of both the Universities of Melbourne and Adelaide, Gago extended his studies to oenology, and now produces and promotes Penfolds range of wines, including its flagship Grange, throughout the world.
In 2012 the drinks business, together with the Institute of Masters of Wine, bestowed The Winemaker’s Winemaker Award upon Gago, which he said he particularly “treasures” among his many awards.
Others to be inducted as Bragg members this year include Professor Michael Archer AM, Professor Terry Hughes and Adjunct Professor Zee Upton.
“We are pleased to welcome our new inductees who have made a remarkable contribution in such diverse disciplines including paleontology, marine biology, oenology and research”, said Peter Yates, chairman of the Royal Institution of Australia. “Celebrating the achievements of our great scientists is an important part of our development as an innovative nation”.