2022 Quealy KKO1 Pinot Noir, Mornington Peninsula

Medium red with purple tints and a bright red-berry fruit bouquet with blueberry/violet, red-cherry and gently chocolaty aromas, the palate light-medium bodied and soft with fine powdery tannins and very accessible now. Delicious pinot.

93 points Huon Hooke therealreview.com

Organic. 2022 is just the fourth release of the KK01, but this wine has already secured its position as a mainstay among Quealy’s fantastic range of Mornington Pinot Noirs. The fruit is sourced from two blocks of dry-grown MV6 vines in Quealy’s certified-organic home vineyard in Balnarring. These vines, planted in 1996, are a stone's throw from the famed, old-vine Seventeen Rows plot.
 
The aim for KK01 has always been to craft a delicious, earth-to-glass Pinot with immediate charm and early appeal. Hence, there’s a strong carbonic element and less time on skins than in the Seventeen Rows, for example. There is also little by way of sulphur additions and no impact from new wood. The fruit was destemmed and fermented as whole berries with no plunging. The wine was pressed after 12 days and sent to seasoned puncheons for 12 months’ maturation.
 
Though there may not be much of it—yields were dramatically low in 2022 for this certified-organic estate—it’s clear KK01 is hitting its straps. Popping with fresh-berry fragrance and savoury, spicy depth, it’s a real charmer.