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Certified organic. And then there were three… Kathleen Quealy and Kevin McCarthy wrote the manifesto on quality Pinot Grigio in Australia, and now we have a new chapter. Taking its name from the Latin for ‘wild sea’, Feri Maris is Quealy’s first single-vineyard Grigio and is drawn entirely from the estate’s organic Balnarring vines that were established in 1982. Here, the mature, dry-grown vines, shallow clay soils and restricted volume are some of the keys to the wine’s expressive character. Then there is the Balnarring climate, which brings flavour early, thus allowing Quealy to pick with freshness in mind.
2026 was a long, cool season. Crops remained very low to moderate, lending the wine good concentration and power. Hand-harvested on March 23rd and whole-bunch pressed, the juice was left to settle overnight before a rough racking with partial solids to stainless steel (70%) and hogsheads (30%, half new). Fermentation was wild, with no addition of sulphur, and as with the Balnarring, the wine was left on lees without any batonage. We have been constantly impressed by the increasing quality of Quealy's home vineyard, now nearly a decade into full organic viticulture — the use of partial barrel ferment and maturation has become part of the winemaking, helping frame the intensity of flavour and texture this site is now offering. Primary fermentation finished in April, and the wine was racked, polish filtered and bottled on September 2nd; this early bottling has preserved some of the natural effervescence from the ferment.