This year’s Balnarring Pinot Grigio is drawn from the Hester and Campbell & Christine vineyards. Both sites are organically managed and lie less than three kilometres from the winery, where the fruit arrives within an hour of picking. The grapes were picked by hand on 14th and 15th March and pressed as bunches. The Quealy team use only the most delicate portion of the press cycle, meaning the juice yield per tonne tends to be extremely low. 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.

As has been the case for a few years now, the 2024 season was marked by poor flowering and low yields of intensely concentrated, healthy fruit. It’s a wonderfully perfumed release, just teeming with apples, pears, blossoms and delicate spice. The texture is spot-on, too, with mineral tension, svelte phenolic grip and juicy, crunchy fruit all working in harmony. 

With Musk Creek and Tussie Mussie, this site completes the trio of Quealy’s premier-league, leased Mornington Peninsula vineyards. Established by doctors Campbell and Christine Penfold 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 a dry-grown, well-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, Campbell & Christine sits at the more concentrated, muscular end of the Pinot spectrum.

This site is famed for producing powerful fruit, and 2024 was another year of paltry yields, further heightening this character. With that in mind, Tom took a mindful, gentle approach in the cellar. The fruit–picked over three days in February (27th and 29th) and March (5th)–came off the vine in pristine condition and was destemmed to mostly small vats for fermentation, with a small portion fermented in barrel. The wine was pressed to barrel after 22 days for 10 months’ maturation in hogsheads, 25% of which were new. The wine was then bottled unfined and unfiltered in February 2025. 

With Musk Creek and Tussie Mussie, this site completes the trio of Quealy’s premier-league, leased Mornington Peninsula vineyards. Established by doctors Campbell and Christine Penfold 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 a dry-grown, well-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, Campbell & Christine sits at the more concentrated, muscular end of the Pinot spectrum.

This site is famed for producing powerful fruit, and the paltry yields in 2023 have heightened this further. With that in mind, Tom took a mindful, gentle approach in the cellar. The fruit came off the vine in pristine condition on 23rd March and was destemmed to mostly small vats for fermentation, with a small portion fermented in barrel. The wine was pressed to barrel after 21 days for 14 months’ maturation in hogsheads, 25% of which were new. The wine was then bottled unfined and unfiltered in June 2024. This has serious flavour–juicy red fruits with some black cherry depth, earth, spice and a tea leaf/floral lift. It’s supple and seductive, with svelte structure and fine, fresh lines. Great length, too.

This is the fourth release of the Feri Maris, Quealy’s top Pinot Grigio bottling. The grapes grow in a single block at 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 Feri Maris block was picked by hand on the 23rd of February—three weeks earlier than the previous year, giving you some idea as to the early nature of the 2024 season. The fruit was pressed as whole bunches and settled overnight before being transferred with plenty of solids to stainless steel (70%) and hogsheads (30%, half of which were new) for fermentation. The wine remained on lees with no stirring until bottling at the end of August. 

Tom McCarthy and the Quealy team have put in Herculean work in the vineyards over the last decade-plus, and with each passing season, it's crystal clear their efforts are now paying dividends. Partial barrel fermentation and maturation have become part of the winemaking process to help frame the intensity of flavour and texture delivered by the organically managed site. Dry-grown, old-vine potency and complexity shine bright in Feri Maris from 2024. The wine runs deep, rich and full, balanced by electric acidity and notes of bright orange, vibrant white florals, warming spice and mouthwatering salty tang on the fine laced, snappy finish. 

Quealy’s Tussie Mussie vineyard is a three-hectare, true-north-facing site in Merricks North planted to Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris. The Pinot vines are in the lower and central part of the vineyard, and the clone is 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 lie in rich, volcanic red clay, are dry-grown and managed organically, with certification due shortly. The 2024 season was another in a string of low-yielding years on the Mornington Peninsula, resulting in low crops of small bunches and berries with incredible concentration. The intense conditions provided the perfect lens through which to glimpse this vineyard’s potential.

The fruit was picked in mid-March and fermented in two batches: one with partial bunches and the other destemmed. It was gently pressed after 25 days and matured in a combination of new (25%), one-, two- and three-year-old barrels. The wine was bottled after 10 months on lees. 

Managed by the Quealy team, the Tussie Mussie vineyard was planted on the site of a former rose farm in 2007 (hence the name—tussie mussie is an old term for a flower bouquet). Located in Merricks North, the vineyard’s three hectares of Pinot Noir and Gris vines are rooted in the Peninsula’s most prized soil: deep, red volcanic clays. Combined with the site’s northern location and north-facing aspect, these soils allow for slow ripening—key to developing complexity while maintaining bright natural acidity.

The fruit was picked over two passes in early and mid-March. The berries arrived at the winery in excellent condition: small, glossy-coloured and brimming with intense flavour. The fruit was pressed as whole bunches using a long cycle and fermented mostly in tank―10% was in barrel―with some solids. This was followed by seven months’ maturation on lees. It’s clear the 2024 season was a winner for whites at this address. This Tussie Mussie Gris is flush with fleshy fruits, flowers and spice with a delicious lick of marine salinity, seamless texture and balance and an elegant, powerfully flavoured close.

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. This year’s blend comprises Riesling (43%), Friulano (31%), Pinot Grigio (23%) and Ribolla Gialla (3%), all sourced from Quealy’s mature white vines rooted in the family’s organically managed estate in Balnarring. The Riesling and Chardonnay were planted in 1982, the Friulano was grafted onto 1996 Chardonnay roots in 2007, and the youngster Ribolla took root in 2018. Winemaker Tom McCarthy and his team picked and fermented the varieties separately with indigenous yeasts in old barrels with full solids. After blending, the wine was bottled without fining or filtration.

After a string of low-yielding seasons, 2024 provided little reprieve for growers on the Peninsula. Despite the low crop, Tom McCarthy describes the vintage as a joy to work with. “The fruit has incredible concentration.” It gleams with spring freshness. Meadow flowers and sun-kissed citrus commingle with nutty kernel and savoury notes, lending complexity. It’s pithy and fresh, with just the right weight and grip. A very strong showing this year; fans of this wine will not be disappointed.

If you ask Tom McCarthy to describe the difference between his Grigio and Gris, he'll tell you Quealy’s single-vineyard Pinot Gris comes from higher vineyards. This means the grapes need to be left on the vine to ripen into late autumn, and they produce headier, fuller-bodied wines. Conversely, the Grigio comes from the warmer Balnarring sites where the fruit is picked earlier and wines are racier.

This is 100% estate Mornington Pinot Gris sourced from basalt-derived volcanic soils in the Musk Creek vineyard. The dry-grown, own-rooted vines were planted in 1997 and enjoy a north-north-east aspect. Perched at 200 metres atop Main Ridge, it overlooks Western Port and the heads, and the persistent, cooling breeze from Bass Strait ensures the fruit maintains freshness. The bunches are tiny and pink with excellent acidity, and the resulting wine is deep, spicy and mineral. 

The ‘Alsatian-style’ press cycle is slow and long (six hours), capturing only the most delicate phenolics. The juice is then racked and mostly fermented (80%) in stainless steel, while the rest goes to French puncheons (half of which were new) to build weight, structure and complexity. Stirring was kept to a minimum. It’s a riot of pink and red fruits with some wild honey, slicks of spice and minerality and a lengthy finish. Lovely weight too. 

This is just the third release of Quealy’s Musk Creek Chardonnay, yet the wine has quickly become a prominent mainstay in the estate’s portfolio. With Tom McCarthy now firmly at the helm of the day-to-day running of things chez Quealy, this should come as no surprise. After all, he has extensive experience with the variety through his one-time side project, Kerri Greens—and, well, this is Mornington.

Quealy’s Chardonnay is from a half-hectare plot of vines on Musk Creek Vineyard in Main Ridge. This well-established, dry-grown site is already a source of Pinot Noir for the team and is highly regarded for producing top-quality Mornington Chardonnay. Perched atop Main Ridge at 150 metres—and planted in 1997 by Tom’s parents, Kevin McCarthy and Kathleen Quealy—it’s a cool, low-yielding, late-ripening site rich in the region’s signature red soils.

It was another poor flowering season on the peninsula, resulting in low crops of small bunches and berries with incredible concentration. The fruit was picked by hand in the middle of March and pressed as bunches to barrel (approximately 30% new) with full solids for fermentation. Tom moved the wine as little as possible to coax the mineral character from the fruit, and stirred the lees sparingly throughout. The wine matured in puncheons for 10 months. It’s another tasty rendition of Chardonnay, grown and made the Quealy way.  

The only blended Pinot in the Quealy range is drawn from all five of the estate’s premium vineyards, from the lower-lying Campbell & Christine to the late-ripening Musk Creek. Planted to different clones and with varying degrees of vine age, what binds these sites together is Quealy farming—led by viticulturist Will Byles, the estate manages every vine. All ferments were spontaneous and the fruit spent an average of 25 days on skins. The batches matured in older barrels for 15 months before assembling and bottling.

Like others on the Peninsula, Quealy got a raw deal with yields in 2024. That said, winemaker Tom McCarthy explained that conditions were ideal in the run-up to and during the harvest period, resulting in small crops of incredibly concentrated fruit. He’s chuffed with the results. With the parcels selected for ripeness and gentle tannin, this is the estate’s most generous, early-drinking Pinot. It’s bright, generous and lifted, with lip-smacking, crunchy red fruits mixed with flowers and spice, silky weight and plush, soft charm. Moreish stuff.