About Us

Cofield Wines is a boutique, family owned and operated winery located in the heart of the Rutherglen wine region.

The Cofield family are a family of workers, who have been treading the vineyards of Rutherglen for over 100 years.

The history starts with Frank Cofield when he started working at St Leonard’s vineyard in 1909. His grandson, Max Cofield spent his school holidays working there chipping weeds, before getting an 'inside job' working at Seppelts and later at All Saints winery.

Max had always had the desire, and in 1990 decided it was time to set up on his own, and open Cofield Wines.

He obviously made the wine industry look enticing, because his son Damien followed his footsteps and took over the winery in 2007.

Damien has a renewed focus to continually develop the wines and increase the love of Cofield Wines all over Australia and the world.

Specialising in sparkling wines made using the Method Traditionelle process, Cofield Wines also offer a wide variety of regional white wines, Rutherglen reds and sweet and fortified wines.

Peter Birks

Peter has a family history in Rutherglen as his parents lived here in the late 1970’s/early 1980’s. His father was the senior winemaker at Lindeman’s in Corowa at the time before leaving to teach the wine course at Wagga Charles Sturt University.

Peter followed his father’s footsteps and started working in the wine industry, first working at the University Winery in Wagga, and then at the winery his father started.

Peter then travelled to France where he graduated from oenology and viticulture from Montpellier SupAgro University.

He then completed his masters thesis in Lisbon, Portugal at the Instituto Superior de Agronomia followed by 4 vintages working in Portugal.

A move to Italy saw him spending 4 years working for La Spinetta winery in Piedmont. Working predominantly with traditional method sparkling wine and prestigious red wines such as Barolo and Barberesco.

Peter then returned back to Rutherglen in 2016 for a winemaking role where he made wines exclusively for export to China.

After spending some time at home with his young family, he joined us at Cofield Wines as Senior Winemaker in December 2020. Peter is looking forward to working with our wide variety of wine styles and progressing the wines we produce.