John Duval Wines

Welcome to John Duval Wines.
John Duval is recognised world wide as one of the world’s greatest and well known winemakers. John now proudly making wines under his own brand, ‘John Duval Wines’, following his decision in late 2002 to leave Penfolds after nearly 29 years as a winemaker, 16 as chief winemaker. The John Duval Wines label fulfils a long term family ambition with John’s first wine, Plexus, launched with the 2003 vintage in 2005.
John’s graduated in agriculture and winemaking at Adelaide University and started with Penfolds in 1974. In 1986 Penfolds appointed him Chief Winemaker, following in the footsteps of some of the greats of Australian winemaking such as Max Schubert, the creator of Penfolds Grange and Don Ditter, another famous Penfolds winemaker of the 1970s and early '80s.
John wasn’t a newcomer to wine, there was a family precedent to John’s career path. The Duval family had for many years run a world famous Suffolk sheep stud and quality vineyards at Morphett Vale, south of Adelaide, supplying Shiraz grapes and vine cuttings to Penfolds.
During Johns time with Penfolds he was lucky enough to oversee one of the most dynamic periods of change in the Australian wine industry. With the support of his team in the Barossa, he secured a number of awards for the company - Winemaker of the Year at the International Wine and Spirit Competition in London in 1989; Red Winemaker of the Year at the International Wine Challenge in London in 1991 and again in 2000; and seeing the 1990 Penfolds Grange named the Wine of the Year by the prestigious US magazine Wine Spectator in 1995. These and many other awards and accolades for its wines, helped establish Penfolds as one of the world’s great wine brands.
Since leaving Penfolds John has consulted to a number of international wine companies in Europe, South America and Australia. John also has a joint venture project with Vina Ventisquero in the Apalta Valley, Chile. In 2003 John travelled to the Columbia Valley at the invitation of Long Shadows Vintners’ founder Allen Shoup to make his first U.S. wine, Sequel, a name chosen in recognition of his life’s work with Syrah. John remains a vintner partner in the Long Shadows venture in Washington State,
As you can imagine John doesn’t get a lot of time to spend at home in the Barossa but he does insist on securing at least four uninterrupted months around vintage to make his own wines.
‘I love working with the fruit that comes from the old vines of the region, so I started with 'Plexus', a Rhone style blend of Shiraz, Grenache and Mourvedre and in 2006 I released my first Shiraz, 'Entity'. I have also released small quantities of a reserve Shiraz, ‘Eligo’, further highlighting the premium quality fruit from the Barossa. In 2010, after some gentle coaxing from my wife Pat … to quote – ‘there is never a white wine in the fridge and all we drink is red’… I made my first white wine under the JDW label –‘ Plexus White’ a Marsanne Roussanne Viognier blend.’
‘John Duval Wines will never be another Penfolds - it is simply my chance to express my 40 odd years of premium winemaking knowledge using some of the best fruit in the world.’
John currently makes five wines under his John Duval Wines range, a white; ‘Plexus White’ (Marsanne, Roussanne, Viognier), and four reds; ‘Plexus Red’ (Shiraz, Grenache, Mourvedre), 'Annexus' (Grenache) ‘Entity’ (Shiraz) and ‘Eligo’ (Shiraz).
We hope you enjoy the wines.