It’s weird and fitting that the first serious comment on a wine blog I wrote came from Stephen Pannell. The lack of preceding remarks speaks volumes about the anonymity in which I was operating; the fact that the most decorated winemaker of his generation deigned to pipe up says a lot about how much he cares.
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I was in a hotel room in Milan when Steve’s message popped up in response to a Nebbiolo post I’d written that featured a wine of his—a 2010 Nebbiolo. He said something modest and grateful and told me I needed to see Massolino in Serralunga d’Alba while I was in that part of the world. As it happened, I’d already lined up an appointment for the next day; it was a happy coincidence that made me love Nebbiolo that little bit more.
I have since had the pleasure of interviewing Steve several times, representing his wines and following his various, exceptionally ambitious projects very closely. During that time, he has won Australia’s most prestigious wine award, the Jimmy Watson Memorial Trophy, for the second time, been named Australian Winemaker of the Year, established a cellar door in McLaren Vale and bought four vineyards that individually specialise in Mediterranean varieties, Nebbiolo, Grenache and warm-climate Shiraz. He is a universally recognised flag-bearer for either the emergence or renaissance of each of those categories in Australia, with a reputation that extends far beyond these borders.
Thanks to Steve’s patience and openness, we cover all of this, and his extraordinary trajectory, in our conversation. Protero is his sole vineyard outside McLaren Vale. This Adelaide Hills site has Nebbiolo as the headline act alongside other northern Italian varieties. The S.C. Pannell cellar door and Portuguese, Iberian and southern Italian varieties are on Oliver’s Road. The Shiraz, including the wine that won the 2026 Halliday Wine Companion Best Shiraz of the Year, grows on his Koomilya Vineyard. Little Branch—an anglicised version of Lindquist, the maiden name of Stephen’s wife, Fiona—is his 100-year-old Grenache vineyard.
Fiona is given a fitting tribute here, as is Steve’s general manager, Tom Grant. His distributor, Patrick Walsh, is mentioned, too (he’s the other Depeche Mode fan alluded to). Patrick is the founder of CellarHand, for which I work, and was himself interviewed for episode four. A mutual Barolo connection exists here. G.D. Vajra is the winery that Steve worked for, and he speaks at length of his relationship with its owners, Aldo and Milena Vaira. CellarHand and S.C. Pannell import these wines into Australia. Another pseudo-Italian connection isDavid Gleave MW, who is in fact the Canada-born, UK-resident founder of Liberty Wines. David also established Willunga 100, a McLaren Vale Grenache specialist featured here. David Ridge is an Australian importer of Italian wine. Paolo de Marchi, meanwhile, is synonymous with the great Chianti Classico estate. Isole e Olena.
Steve is the son of Bill and Sandra Pannell, who founded Moss Wood in Margaret River and went on to establish Picardy in Pemberton, Western Australia. His early French connections include the late Burgundy broker Becky Wasserman-Hone, Dominique Lafon of Domaine des Comtes Lafon in Meursault, Bertie Eden of Château Maris in the Languedoc, Jacques and François Lurton, and the late Gérard Potel, then of Domaine de la Pousse d’Or in Volnay. Steve also pays tribute to his dear friend Nicolas Potel, founder of Domaine de Bellene, who died in June this year.
A whole host of Australian characters come up in this conversation. Steve first met Petaluma founder Brian Croser when he was a kid in WA; likewise, the late Len Evans, whose famous tutorial (“the greatest wine school on earth”) is also discussed. Huon Hooke is the wine writer he worked alongside in Sydney, and Jim Whittle, who died in 2014, was their larger-than-life Sydney retail manager.
Among Steve’s cohort at Roseworthy Agricultural College were Virginia Willcock of Vasse Felix, Peter Gago of Penfolds (an interesting perspective on young Gago here), Reid Bosward, Wendy Stuckey and Nick Haselgrove. Hardys was another incredibly formative experience for Steve—this is where he won his first Jimmy Watson for the 1995 Eileen Hardy Shiraz. Anna Flowerday, my guest on episode 13, spoke about this golden age of Hardys talent overseen by Tim James and Peter Dawson, and including the likes of Larry Cherubino, Rob Mann (Corymbia) and Kerri Thompson (Wines by KT).
Other names mentioned in passing include: Wendouree, the legendary Clare Valley estate whose character, as expressed by custodians Tony and Lita Brady, has so influenced Steve; Adelaide Hills wine-grower Tim Knappstein (who enjoys a cameo here and here); Warren Randall, owner of Seppeltsfield in the Barossa; English-born, South Australia-based wine writer Tim White; Simon Benjamin, co-founder of Iberia-inspired Bar Lourinhã in Melbourne; and Mark Lloyd, who has long been a frontrunner with alternative varieties with his beautiful family estate, Coriole, in McLaren Vale.
