2023 Quealy Musk Creek Pinot Gris, Mornington Peninsula

Lovers of pinot gris rejoice – this is luscious, flavoursome and deeply satisfying. Full of Packham pears and pear essence, lemon curd sprinkled with ginger powder; it’s textural, the palate plumped up with good flavour and malted-milk lees. Yet not too heavy, not too light – just right.

95 points Special Value Jane Faulkner winecompanion.com.au

A slow avalanche of honey, great depth and viscosity, finishes long and dry and poised. Musk Creek is a late ripening vineyard influenced by the ocean and steep, spring fed aspect. The wind blows the cloud away to reveal an autumn of cold sunshine. This terroir restrains, yet supports, ripening until the end of autumn thus grapes accumulate honey, red berry, even forest floor character.

If you ask Tom McCarthy to describe the difference between Pinot Grigio and Gris, he'll tell you Quealy’s single-vineyard Pinot Gris comes from vineyards that are higher in altitude. This means the grapes need to be left on the vine to ripen into late Autumn, and they therefore produce wines that are heady and richer in body. The Grigio on the other hand comes from the warmer Balnarring sites where the fruit is picked earlier and produces racier wines.

 This is 100% estate Mornington Pinot Gris sourced from basalt-derived volcanic soils in the Musk Creek Vineyard. This site enjoys cooler conditions and ripens later than Tussie Mussie. It’s perched at 180-210 metres altitude atop Main Ridge. Here it overlooks Westernport Bay and the heads, and the persistent, cooling breeze from Bass Strait ensures the fruit maintains freshness. The site produces bunches of tiny, pink berries with excellent acidity—the result is a deeper, spicier, more complex and mineral Gris. Planted in 1997, the vines are dry-grown, and the fruit is always hand-harvested.  

The ‘Alsatian-style’ press cycle is a long process. Whole bunches are loaded into the press and gently extracted over 12 hours to capture only the most delicate phenolics. The juice was then racked, and half fermented (wild) in stainless steel while the rest went to French oak for structure and complexity. There was no bâtonnage.