Hand harvested with minimal selection – some bird damage which really does need to be entirely removed given the winemaking technique - required following beautiful calm ripening on April 7th. Large grand berries with the odd blemish from the sun barely fit through the holes in our destemmer. A visually stunning variety.

The Malvasia was gently destemmed to a small 0.6t stainless fermenter with lid where it was left untouched over winter until pressing on the first day of Spring. Basket pressed with the very hard squeeze kept separate the wine was left in a single seasoned hogs head, racked once to tank before bottling unfined unfiltered late August 2025. Previously 18 months the 2023 has spent nearly 24 months in wood.

Oxygen is a big part of this wine with the sulphur kept at a minimum including at bottling (free so2 of around 1.5g/hl). This combined with the time creates avery stable wine that can be enjoyed many days after opening. The finished wine has no additions at any point other than SO2.

It’s a rich golden colour and teems with sweet citrus, bruised red apples, honey blossoms and a sweet bakery lift of frangipani and biscuits. The palate is full, fleshy and mouthcoatingly savoury, with a fresh, sweet-citrus cut and thrust and a lovely, rich lick of oxidative nuttiness on the lengthy finish. Terrific wine, terrific value. 

Malvasia Istriana is seen as a high quality versatile grape variety in Friuli lending weight and aromatics to blends and in its own right

The Malvasia was planted at Quealy in 2014 with just 3 rows or … ha this is our smallest plantings of a single varietal onsite.