Quealy Winemakers

Pioneering Mornington Peninsula

‘Pioneers’ is not a word we throw around loosely, but it’s precisely the right term to describe Kathleen Quealy and Kevin McCarthy. This power couple was not only part of the early wave of growers to begin seriously exploring and planting the Mornington Peninsula in the early ‘90s, but they were also the producer to identify this area’s potential with Pinot Gris/Pinot Grigio and their work with this variety made the grape a household name in Australia. Study trips to Collio (1995), Alsace (1998) and the pilgrimage to Josko Gravner (2006), each had a profound influence on Quealy and McCarthy’s thinking—and led to some of Australia’s finest, and earliest attempts at quality skin contact wines: an adventure that continues today.

Now there is a generational shift at play with Tom McCarthy, the eldest son of Kathleen and Kevin starting to make his mark. Tom McCarthy took over as chief winemaker at Quealy in 2019 with Kevin—as Tom puts it—as his “consultant and night shift”. While the outstanding vibrancy of the latest releases underlines what Tom is bringing to the table, he’s also quick to point out that he’s working with Quealy’s established house philosophy of many years, which includes no pressings (and therefore no need for fining), no acidification, low and late sulphur additions and a reliance on old oak.

Not content simply playing the role of trailblazer, today this pioneering Estate is being driven to new heights by a young team making their mark in both vineyard and winery.

In the vineyards, Quealy’s full-time viticulturist Lucas Blanck (son of leading Alsace vigneron Frédéric Blanck) has overseen a major renovation of the Balnarring home vineyard, including the implementation of organic certification, dryland farming, a rotational cover crop program (for nutrition and soil structure) and replanting nearly 20% of the vineyard to Ribolla Gialla, Pinot Grigio et al. His work underpins the quality we’re seeing in today’s wines and was recently recognized by the judges of the Young Gun of Wine Vineyard of the Year awards.

The Quealy range is a many-splendoured thing. Four vineyards lie at the heart of the portfolio. The Home Block in Balnarring was planted in 1982 and has some of the oldest Pinot Noir vines on the Peninsula. This is also the home to Quealy’s oldest Pinot Grigio, and the aromatic varieties of Moscato Giallo, Friulano and Riesling, as well as some more recent plantings of Malvasia and Ribolla Gialla. A little Chardonnay from the original plantings also remains. As of 2019, the Home Block is certified organic.

Kathleen Quealy planted the Musk Creek vineyard in 1997. Perched atop Main Ridge, overlooking Westernport Bay and the heads, it’s the coolest site in the portfolio, bestowing exceptional late-ripening Pinot Noir and Pinot Gris. On the red soils of Merricks North, there’s the Tussie Mussie vineyard, and back in Balnarring we have Campbell & Christine, again planted by Quealy (for the owners) in 1994. Each of these sites is managed entirely by the Quealy team and, with the current exception of Musk Creek, all are farmed organically.

Much of the narrative surrounding this producer has focussed on the winemaking side of the story. Yet the Quealy team has also earned the right to be called pioneers for their recognition of potential in the region, the establishment of organic practice, and the planting of previously overlooked varieties they believed would (and did) excel.

The Range

Quealy Pobblebonk Field Blend 2024
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Quealy Pobblebonk Field Blend 2024

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.

“Light to mid straw colour in the glass, the bouquet savoury with some nutty notes possibly from barrel ferment, adding layers to the floral and spicy fruit aromas. Deliciously intense fruit on palate with a touch more dimension than the Quealy pinot grigios. It's truly more than the sum of its parts. A lovely drink, intense, long and harmonious, the finish lip-smackingly dry and appetising.”
95 points, Huon Hooke, The Real Review
“How do you make a melange of fruity, bitter and salty so perfectly? So easygoing, delivering the goods, not stingy on flavour, not pushy with perfume. Just right. Lightly honeyed, with pink rock salt to balance, crunch of pears and cashews, with a cooling aniseed to finish. Textural but smooth. Simply yum. Nailed it.”
94 points, Kasia Sobiesiak, The Wine Front
“Quite possibly the most delicious Pobblebonk to date. Riesling, friulano, pinot grigio and ribolla gialla are the friends, each fermented wild in used French oak, on full solids and later blended. It’s heady with meadow flowers, lemon blossom and hints of lemon verbena, really spicy with nutty, leesy aromas, and the palate is both textural and alive with fine acidity. Neat phenolics add to the pleasure of drinking this.”
95 points, Jane Faulkner, The Wine Companion
Quealy Pobblebonk Field Blend 2024
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Quealy Splendido 2022
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Quealy Splendido 2022

Quealy moved Splendido from a pét-nat style to traditional method beginning with the 2021 because the team felt this better suited the style and clarity they had in mind. Judging from the quality of this year and last, Tom McCarthy was bang on the money.In further development, the 2022 fruit comes entirely from the certified-organic home vineyard in Balnarring. Quealy planted Moscato Giallo in 2014 and recently bottled their first still wine from the vines; you can read more on that here. The bunches are large and loose, with thick, hardy skins and deep-yellow berries. As with most members of the Moscato family, you can expect vibrant, perfumed aromatics and ripe, sunny flavours. The fruit was picked at the end of March at nine baumé to preserve perfume and acidity. It was immediately gently pressed (just 500 litres per tonne) to steel tank for fermentation. After malolactic conversion, the wine was tiraged and immediately bottled for secondary fermentation. It was disgorged by hand and made without any sulphur or dosage.

Quealy Splendido 2022
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Quealy Turbul Friulano 2023
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Quealy Turbul Friulano 2023

The variety behind some of northeast Italy’s most exciting whites, Friulano (formerly Tocai Friulano) landed in Australia in the 1970s. Quealy sourced its cuttings from the Mildura vineyard of Slovenian émigré Denis Pasut, grafting over a block of 1996 Chardonnay at the family’s Balnarring vineyard as early as 2003. Above all, quality Friulano needs two things: low yields and lots of attention. “Friulano is a bugger to work with, but well worth the effort,” as Tom McCarthy eloquently puts it.Inspired by his father’s skinsy 2008 Claudius (under the T’Gallant label) and his time in northern Italy, Tom McCarthy’s Turbul is a careful selection of the estate’s ripest Friulano, spontaneously fermented on skins in 800-litre terracotta amphorae.2023 was a fantastic vintage for this style. The bunches were hand-selected and destemmed into terracotta. The wine was plunged daily until the end of the fermentation and stirred every few weeks until it was basket-pressed on the first day of spring. No additions were made until a small pinch of SO2 after pressing. The wine matured in seasoned French puncheons for 18 months with no stirring. It was racked and bottled in late February 2025.

Quealy Turbul Friulano 2023
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Quealy Seventeen Rows Pinot Noir 2022
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Quealy Seventeen Rows Pinot Noir 2022

Although it was purchased in 2003, Quealy’s home vineyard was initially planted in 1982, making this Balnarring vineyard one of Mornington’s oldest Pinot Noir sites. Just 17 rows of MV6 Pinot Noir from that era remain, lending their old-vine fruit to Quealy’s flagship Pinot Noir. The entire vineyard is on a gentle north-facing slope, on shallow loams over clay. These vines have been certified organic since 2019.Fruit for 2022 was 100% destemmed and fermented in a single 2.5-tonne stainless-steel vat. It was sparingly plunged by hand, about once a day and perhaps twice when fermentation was at its peak. The wine was lightly pressed to French hogsheads (equal parts new, one- and two-year-old oak), where it spent a little over 12 months without being moved. It was racked and bottled after an eight-week rest in stainless steel.

Quealy Seventeen Rows Pinot Noir 2022
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Quealy Campbell & Christine Pinot Noir 2024
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Quealy Campbell & Christine Pinot Noir 2024

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. 

Quealy Campbell & Christine Pinot Noir 2024
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Quealy Tussie Mussie Pinot Noir 2024
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Quealy Tussie Mussie Pinot Noir 2024

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. 

Quealy Tussie Mussie Pinot Noir 2024
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AT-A-GLANCE

• T’Gallant founders Kevin McCarthy and Kathleen Queal founded this pioneering grower-producer on the Mornington Peninsula in 2003.

• McCarthy and Quealy remain deeply involved, with winemaker son Tom McCarthy in charge of day-to-day operations.

• Farming is strictly organic across the estate's five vineyards: Home Vineyard (certified), Campbell & Christine, Musk Creek, Tussie Mussie and Halarah.

• These sites are home to vines planted as far back as 1982, making them some of the oldest on the peninsula.

• Quealy forged its reputation as a pioneer of aromatic whites (they were the first to plant on the peninsula), particularly Pinot Gris/Grigio.

• They also make a range of straight and blended whites from Italian whites (Friulano, Ribolla Gialla, Moscato Giallo and Malvasia), as well as blended and single-site Pinot Noirs, a Chardonnay and sparklings.



IN THE PRESS

“Kathleen Quealy and Kevin McCarthy were among the early waves of winemakers on the Mornington Peninsula. They challenged the status quo - most publicly by introducing Mornington Peninsula pinot gris/grigio (with great success). Behind this was improvement and diversification in site selection, plus viticulture and winemaking techniques that allowed their business to grow significantly.”
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ James Halliday, Winecompanion.com.au

“This husband and wife winemaking team have done much to change the face of Australian wine, bringing pinot gris/grigio into the mainstream and championing alternative varieties ... The future looks bright for Quealy Winemakers, with eldest son Tom joining the business in 2012 ... Great things are seldom born of conformity.”
Huon Hooke, Gourmet Traveller Wine

Country

Australia

Primary Region

Mornington Peninsula, Victoria

People

Winemakers: Tom McCarthy, Kathleen Quealy

Availability

National

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