This year’s Balnarring Pinot Grigio is drawn from the organically managed Hester vineyard and Campbell and Christine vineyard. Both sites lie less than three kilometres from the winery, where the fruit arrives within an hour of picking. The grapes are pressed as whole bunches with a low yield per tonne because Quealy only uses the most delicate portion of the cycle. The juice is left to settle overnight without sulphuring. In the morning, the wine is racked off its gross lees and left to begin spontaneous fermentation in stainless steel. After primary fermentation, malolactic conversion ensues before naturally stopping due to the winter temperatures. The wine is sulphured and bottled unfiltered.

Tom McCarthy calls the 2023 season a "rinse-and-repeat of 2022". Once again, poor flowering dramatically reduced eventual crops. The wet spring was followed by a stable ripening season, which allowed the fruit to develop steadily, with minimal disease pressure. This resulted in exceptional fruit with excellent flavour intensity—perhaps even dialled up from 2022—and with acute varietal distinctions.

This is wonderfully perfumed, with white flowers, nashi pear, citrus and a twist of maritime freshness allied to a generous yet lip-smacking palate, rippling with mineral tension and a lick of salinity at the finish. Intense, fresh and crammed with flavour, there’s a whole lot of wine in the glass here.

The grapes for Quealy’s top Grigio bottling grow on the home vineyard in Balnarring. Established in 1982, it was one of the region’s first vineyards and is now certified organic and managed without irrigation. The Pinot Grigio was harvested by hand on 20th March, pressed as whole bunches and settled. It was racked with partial solids to stainless steel (70%) and hogsheads (50% new). The must fermented with indigenous yeasts, and there was no addition of sulphur. The wine was left on lees without stirring.

Tom McCarthy and the Quealy team have been impressed by the increasing quality of Quealy’s home vineyard, which has now been organically farmed for almost a decade. Partial barrel fermentation and maturation have become part of the winemaking to help frame the intensity of flavour and texture they find in the fruit grown on the site. The Feri Maris was racked before bottling on 1st July—nice and early to retain freshness and natural CO2 from the fermentation.

It’s a potent expression of Feri Maris in 2023, courtesy of mature, dry-grown vines, dramatically low yields and an even glide through the ripening season. This glitters in the glass with citrus, floral notes and a deep mineral core. It drives through the palate with snappy acidity and grippy but finely laced structure, closing with a citrusy, salty tang.

Named after the Pobblebonk frogs that clearly love life in Quealy’s vineyards and wetlands, this is an excellent introduction to Quealy’s Friuli-inspired blends. After a year off, this wine returns to reflect the home vineyard's older white vines. The Riesling and Chardonnay were planted in 1982, and the Friulano was grafted in 2007 from 1996-planted Chardonnay vines. The 2023 comprises 50% Riesling, 31% Friulano and 19% Chardonnay. The team picked and fermented the varieties separately with indigenous yeasts, in barrels (17% new) with full solids. After blending, the wine was bottled without fining.

This gleams with summer freshness with yellow flowers, sun-kissed fruits and some nutty kernel notes lending complexity. There’s lovely 'inter-varietal’ harmony at play here; it strikes an impressive balance between fleshy and ripe citrus pith, savoury nuance and a dash of coastal salinity. Tom McCarthy is super pleased with this release, and well he should be—it’s one of the finest Pobblebonks we’ve seen.

Tussie Mussie’s Pinot block is planted to 777—or the ‘Morey clone’ to give its more romantic nickname. It’s a low-yielding cultivar, and Quealy prunes the vine to a single arched cane, ensuring plenty of light and space around each cluster. These vines are managed organically, with certification to follow in due course. The site is just beginning to show its true potential. The intense, low-yielding conditions in 2022 provided the perfect foil for a glimpse of the vineyard’s true potential.

Tussie Mussie is always the most open of Quealy’s single-site Pinots. The 2022 fermented in two small open-top fermenters. The 777 clone lends itself to the use of whole clusters, so one batch was mostly whole bunches and the other fully destemmed. After 16 days on skins, the wine was gently pressed to old barriques, where it remained for 14 months on full lees. Huon Hooke’s review nicely captures the purity and filigree nature of the wine.

Organic. 2022 is just the fourth release of the KK01, but this wine has already secured its position as a mainstay among Quealy’s fantastic range of Mornington Pinot Noirs. The fruit is sourced from two blocks of dry-grown MV6 vines in Quealy’s certified-organic home vineyard in Balnarring. These vines, planted in 1996, are a stone's throw from the famed, old-vine Seventeen Rows plot.

The aim for KK01 has always been to craft a delicious, earth-to-glass Pinot with immediate charm and early appeal. Hence, there’s a strong carbonic element and less time on skins than in the Seventeen Rows, for example. There is also little by way of sulphur additions and no impact from new wood. The fruit was destemmed and fermented as whole berries with no plunging. The wine was pressed after 12 days and sent to seasoned puncheons for 12 months’ maturation.

Though there may not be much of it—yields were dramatically low in 2022 for this certified-organic estate—it’s clear KK01 is hitting its straps. Popping with fresh-berry fragrance and savoury, spicy depth, it’s a real charmer. 

Musk Creek vineyard, perched atop Main Ridge and planted in 1997 by Kevin McCarthy and Kathleen Quealy, is considerably cooler and hence later-ripening than Quealy’s Tussie Mussie or Seventeen Rows sites. As such, it’s a marginal place to ripen Pinot, and low yields are a must (along with plenty of work with the canopy). Sitting at 150 metres, these mature vines are rooted in the rich red soils of the region. The four-hectare site is planted to Pinot Noir (mostly MV6) and Gris in equal measure, with another hectare dedicated to Muscat Rouge à Petits Grains and Chardonnay.

The intense, low-yielding season warranted a rethink regarding winemaker Tom McCarthy’s use of whole bunches. The low berry-to-stalk ratio simply didn’t warrant its use, so Tom destemmed all the fruit to better capture its purity and vividness. Wild fermentation took place in small two-tonne fermenters with minimal plunging and only light pressing. The wine rested on full lees in French hogsheads (25% new) for 14 months before being bottled unfined and unfiltered. The quality of the vintage and site is undeniable. The 2022 is a bright, complex and delicious release.

With Musk Creek and Tussie Mussie, this site completes the trio of Quealy’s premier-league, leased Mornington Peninsula vineyards. Established by Campbell and Christine Penfold—both doctors— in 1994, it mainly features the MV6 clone. Some 114 and 115 were also planted, taking advantage of the premium clones that became available around the same time. Located on the coastal plain, it sits just 30 metres above sea level behind Balnarring village. It’s an exposed, north-facing site with alluvial clay and red soils washed down from Red Hill. Tom McCarthy tells us it produces “gorgeous, small bunches of glossy Pinot Noir”. Stylistically, the Campbell & Christine sits at the more concentrated, muscular end of the Pinot spectrum.

Low yields in 2022 further ramped up the impactful fruit from this site, so Tom approached it with a gentle hand in the cellar. Different clones were picked over two days—9th and 16th March. Destemmed fruit fermented in small vats over 21 days before being gently pressed to puncheons (approximately 20% new) for 14 months.