Quealy saying something: outspoken Mornington Peninsula Pinot Gris & Friulano

Kevin McCarthy, Quealy Wines

It feels naughty to write up ‘the other Pinot’ before Mornington Peninsula Wineries’ recent ‘Making Waves’ Pinot Noir masterclass and tasting, but Quealy Winemakers’ Pinot Gris wines are outspoken.  And on a more pragmatic note, being away means time has been my enemy!  

I’ll find a gap to write up my highlights of the very many more Mornington Noirs than Gris shown soon, because they brilliantly highlighted this Victorian Pinot Noir- focused region’s skill with the grape and rich diversity of style and terroir.

Back to Gris, Kathleen Quealy and her husband Kevin McCarthy might well be described as Australia’s Pinot Gris Queen and King.  Quealy contends, “Pinot Gris is like Pinot Noir on the Peninsula, totally premium and site fastidious.” The couple established Quealy Winemakers in 2006 having pioneered Australian Pinot Gris since the early ’90s.  First at T’Gallant  (also in Mornington Peninsula), which they sold to Fosters in 2003.  McCarthy continued to make T’Gallant’s wines until last year, when he focused on Quealy full-time.

I wrote about the couple’s early work with the variety when I interviewed McCarthy in 2013, writing up three very different T’Gallant cuvées, all from Mornington Peninsula.  It’s an interesting story so I’ve cut and pasted it below, after which you’ll find my notes on two of Quealy Winemakers’ latest Pinot Gris releases and a Friulano.  Les Caves de Pyrene has just started to import and retail these eye-catching wines in the UK.

Pioneering Pinot Gris

Kathleen first encountered Pinot Gris at Charles Sturt University, where she studied under Australia’s “Father of Pinot Gris,” Dr Max Loder, who had planted the variety in the college vineyard. McCarthy told me that working with Pinot Gris “opened an extraordinary drawer he’d never expected to see opened.” Because the variety was an unknown quantity in Australia when they planted it at T’Gallant in 1988, learning about it entailed trips to Europe where McCarthy says, “we learned Pinot Gris has an extraordinary ability to make a range of styles which is derived not from winemaker manipulation, but from understanding what individual sites do to the variety.”

Having established good friends among the Alsace and Collio winemaking communities meant “we learned to relax making the wines,” he says, especially about phenolics.  Adding “we were taught to hate phenolics in wine – wines should be fined etc” – McCarthy reckons it’s the worst thing you can do with Pinot Gris.  Pointing to Alsace’s success with the variety, he reckons that the French region’s textured style really comes back to phenolics and is the product of cool sites, where the variety is just on the edge of flavour ripeness.  Also the use of lees and long press cycles which, McCarthy says, “seem outrageous” – perhaps 4-6 times longer than typical in Australia!  It’s an approach which he observes “was so crucial to the structure of wine” but “very hard to understand because, in Australia, we came at wine in complete ignorance of this path of structure with white wine.”  These days, he says, “texture is now almost a mantra; minerality too – people are striving to understand them in Australia.”

Cautioning you have to be sensitive to changes in phenolic composition during harvesting, McCarthy points out the hardest styles are the early picked styles because, if you pick too early and it’s underripe, “it’s appalling…you’ve got to pounce on fruit.”  On the other hand in Mornington Peninsula’s cool climes (and T’Gallant enjoy a cool location on the peninsula close to the Bass Strait), the ripening process is very slow, which results in opulent wines with high baumes, which he likens to powerful Alsace styles, such as Zind Humbrecht’s wines – “you can’t look at numbers…we have to wait to get flavour ripeness.”

Latest releases

Quealy Winemakers Tussie Mussie Pinot Gris 2015 (Mornington Peninsula)

Eight years old, Tussie  Mussie Vineyard is located along Bittern-Dromana Rd, Merricks North with a north-facing aspect “for maximum sunshine in a region where the temperature is tempered by maritime influence of cloud cover,” says Quealy.  With rich soil, the crop is heavier than at Musk Creek and the winemaking style different, with a more delicate press cycle.  For Quealy, “the wine goes in a different direction – more like nectar, sweeter flavours, less phenolic.”  Tussie Mussie spent 6 months on lees and is the easier going of the two.  Round and ripe, with poached pear, stone fruits and spice. Lovely mouthfeel and depth of flavour, with juicy, well-integrated acidity to balance and extend the palate.  14.5%

Quealy Winemakers Musk Creek Pinot Gris 2015 (Mornington Peninsula)

So-called because this vineyard is located on the top of Musk Creek Road. It was planted in 1994 under contract for T’Gallant.  With altitude on the tail of Arthurs Seat between Main Ridge and Flinders, it is the cooler site.  This, together with the rich red clay earth and an amphitheatre style north-north-east facing exposition, allows for the slow ripening which defines Musk Creek’s style – one of high natural acidity and ripe fruit flavour – “deep honey,” says Quealy.  Though it weighs in at 14.5%, because of that acidity, Musk Creek has the more emphatic structure – terrific line and length.  The energy of its racy attack seemingly pushes this wine’s resonating musky apricot and lifted spices to the back palate, where they linger.   And I expect it will indeed become honeyed with age. Impressive, again with lovely balance.   14.5%

Quealy Winemakers Turbul Friulano 2015 (Mornington Peninsula)

Described as “[A] modern natural wine,” this Friulano (grafted over from Chardonnay) is fermented on skins to dryness then matured in barriques, one new; it was bottled without any clarification.  It’s funky and nutty on nose and palate.  Though tight, lean even, conversely it has some gras – it’s very textural.  McCarthy reckons it “needs a plate of food” and I couldn’t agree more.  This structured, assertive yet shy dry wine seems worth getting to know better.   In the vineyard too, where the winemaker told me “you have to learn how to prune it – it’s very vigorous.”