News

Quealy Winemakers Newsletter 2021

A Dynamic Selection Of Wine In A Gift Box

Mornington Peninsula is a young and evolving region. We grow and make many small batches from our vineyards. There is so much to discover and these wine bundles are our way of sharing the journey with you.

Vintage 2021

Our vineyards are in great shape with their tiny grapes and leaves tilted to the sun.
A wet season so far, and the rain-soaked soil will provide moisture and nutrition to sustain as the grapes swell and ripen over summer.

Meanwhile, the winery is reshaping how our fruit is received; with a sorter and de-stemmer that will elevate the lustre in forthcoming wine.

I think the season will be late (say March 7) because the tomatoes are late; Lucas suggests vintage begins first week of March (late by days).
Kevin already threatening us with mid – February.

Single Vineyard Frisson

The thrill to taste and create single vineyard wine. To follow them over their vintages and their individual maturity. And for us to understand how to bring out the best in the vineyard and the winery. Here is a taste of our single vineyards available at the Cellar Door this summer or order online:

Secco Splendido Metodo Ancestrale 2019

Many years ago, we asked Joe Vaughan at 100 Hunts Vineyard to grow Moscato Bianco specifically the small berried clone for us. We settled on the Ancestrale method of sparkling wine where fermentation fizz is captured in bottle. We hand disgorge to demand, usually a small batch of 40 dozen each month. As time on lees extends past eighteen months, the bubble finesses, the jolly aromatics subdue and transform the palate to a powdery dry effervescence. Joe has refined Moscato Bianco, the first and only grower of this marvelous cool climate variety in the region.

Musk Creek Pinot Gris 2020 

A luxurious peek into this small cold vintage from a vineyard that has led the way in Australia for Pinot Gris. Ample sunshine in an elevated site marked with an ultra-cool microclimate readily creates voluptuous wine. This year’s wine tempered with solids fermentation and time in barrel.

KKO1 Pinot Noir 2019

This is a high-quality vintage of fair yields. A hot spell preceded picking leaving everyone on the edge of their seat however the fruit not only survived but excelled leaving us with wines of high intensity with genuine varietal expression. The newest vintage of our younger vines (1994) now with organic certification. A departure from our usual somber style with less maceration and maceration time.   Harvested March 5th 2019. Destemmed into a covered vat so that each individual berry began with carbonic fermentation. Total maceration time of seventeen days, and then lightly pressed.

Matured in older puncheons, and racked carefully to ensure no filtration or fining necessary to make this wine. We sought to make a brighter, expressive wine that peaks earlier than our other single vineyard Pinot Noirs. You be the judge.

 

 

They needed some time

Lina Lool is a field blend like Pobblebonk, however with the more exotic aromatic grape varieties that we grow here; Moscato Giallo and Malvasia Istriana. We gentle de-stem immediately into amphora for fermentation and maceration without sulphur for six months. Now the head spaces of the amphorae smell of cumin, coriander and honey. We then bucket the free run into barrel to mature an additional six months before bottling. Lina Lool has matured to perfection in bottle and is now showing what it’s capable of.  

“Friulano, moscato giallo and riesling get six months skin fermentation here, What a thing! This is fantastic orange wine. Surround sound in floral, sweet citrus, green herb, saline characters, something akin to farmhouse cider, palate and bouquet matching neatly with this. Slurpee texture tempered with thick ribbons of tannin, gently sweet-sour fruit pleasingly bitter to close. Fantastic, compelling expression.”– Wine Front, Mike Bennie 94pts

2018 vintage, Quealy Seventeen Rowsis now avalibe on our online store. Wide spaced, own rooted, 1982 MV6 Mornington Peninsula heritage Pinot Noir. Ideal ripening conditions in 2018 are magnified in these older vines. Deep brooding wine emerges from long maceration and a further twelve months in 300L hogs head barrels, 1/3 new. The drinking window for this is just beginning to open up, looking forward to seeing where it goes.

Vintage 2020

Yields way down – way down, as classically pessimistic farmers we became convinced it would coincide with a disastrous final weeks of ripening as conditions threatened to deteriorate. They didn’t. Healthy bunches of small berries delivered to the winery. High malic acids testament to the cool conditions. 2020 is showing signs of being a vintage of precision, natural acids are high and flavours cover the full spectrum.

Skin Contact

Quealy’s vintage 2020 skin contact wines – Turbul & Lina Lool currently in amphora destined to be decanted into barrel in final weeks of winter. Clarity is important to the finish of a wine, and decanting / racking wine off skins / lees / solids remains the important natural process of clarification particularly on the brink of spring when wines stir. Further time as wine in barrel – in our case usually 6 to 12 months – softens white tannin, creating depth and concentration in the palate.