“We chose to purchase the vineyard in 2003 because we were aware of the quality of the grapes. Balnarring as a warmer, drier subregion allowed us to successfully launch our organic vineyard management,” says Kathleen Quealy. The Quealy Balnarring vineyard was in official organic conversion for five years before being certified (ACO), along with the onsite winery, in 2019 – a shift towards sustainability that was abetted by the geology of the site. “Balnarring soils have a high carbon content and, as a clay loam over clay, have tremendous water-holding capacity which is essential for dryland farming,” Quealy notes.
While Quealy and Kevin McCarthy are responsible for the development of pinot gris/grigio on the Mornington Peninsula – as well as sparking interest in the variety across the country – their interest in exploring the potential of other varieties, especially Italian varieties,has never dimmed. In addition to pinot grigio and the regional star chardonnay and pinot noir the site now has plantings of friulano, muscat moscato giallo, malvasia istriana and ribolla gialla, along with a smattering of riesling, across a total of 7 hectares of land under vine. The Quealy team is currently considering new plantings – likely ribolla gialla and malvasia istriana – but these will be strictly limited in order to preserve biodiversity within the site ad to ensure responsible stewardship of the land.
“The skin contact program at Quealy is very demanding of viticulture. We are always looking to increase exposure of the fruit and push back the picking dates to achieve real phenolic ripeness alongside fruit ripeness. The varieties from North-East Italy are well-suited to the Peninsula, but do get picked often more than a month later than the typical varieties of the region. We are stylistically looking for dense, complex flavour profiles and thick skins, and not worried about high acidity or freshness. The reason why we planted Italian varieties to make skin contact wine is that the reduced sunshine of the Mornington Peninsula would ensure these potentially heavy bunches would remain quite small, and thus create powerful wines of distinction.”
The original vineyard’s plantings of cabernet sauvignon and merlot gave way to the newer varieties, while the oldest pinot noir and riesling stayed. Planted in 1982, they are some of the Peninsula’s oldest vines. Although much of the chardonnay was grafted to friulano, there are still also original plantings, while the younger-vine pinot noir was grafted to pinot grigio. Most of the newer plantings are on rootstock as a phylloxera precaution, with a firm focus on later-ripening varieties and those with thicker skins to mitigate disease issues. “Time has proven the quality of the vineyard,” Quealy says. “The wide row spacing (3.5 metres) and heritage clones of MV6 pinot noir and P58 chardonnay have created wine that is individual and great.”
Both Quealy and Byles are quick to point out the viticultural importance of those wide rows – an accidental byproduct of the vineyard’s former life as an orchard and the former owners’ use of a standard orchard tractor (as opposed to a specialised vineyard tractor). “The old 3.5 metre width … produces wine of great depth and tannin, says Byles. “Seventeen Rows’ 3.5 metre spacing has less disease pressure than in the 2.5 and 2.4 metre wide rows [of other parcels within the vineyard]. Vine row width of 2.4 to 3.5 metres means that irrigation is not necessary.” Quealy concurs with Byles regarding the impact of row width on the resulting wines. “The wide rows create a distinct style because the vines are awash with cool sunlight,” she says. “The pinot noir, chardonnay and riesling have great depth.”
While row spacing is one of the reasons that Quealy’s Estate wines are so compelling, Byles argues that the work that the Quealy team puts into soil health is the most important factor for wine quality. “Soil health is the focus,” he says. “This is the main driver to vineyard health, grape quality and wine quality. The strategies are not complex – the real challenge is implementing them. We have a strong vineyard-educated team at Quealy enabling us to carry and implement the workload that comes with chasing these improvements. This strategy includes cover crops (many plant varieties to increase bio-diversity), and rolling of cover crops to increase soil moisture and decrease compaction.”
Soil moisture is of critical importance here, since the vineyard is essentially dry grown, with minimal irrigation only used to support and nurture the newer plantings. “The dry growing without question increases the power of the wines and keeps their PHs in the wine low and natural acid moderate,” Byles says. “The region has adequate water, – enhanced with our zero cultivation [regime] – and high carbon soil. There appears to be no quantity impact with dry grown. Our vineyard sustains good yields.”
To build soil health, midrow cover crops are planted biannually, and are rolled rather than slashed wherever possible. This slows their composting, which in turn helps to retain soil moisture during the growing season, before returning their nutrients to the soil. Large worm farms process other organic waste, while all wastewater is treated onsite, then distributed clear of the dam to contribute to local waterways and groundwater resources. Cultivation is avoided at all costs. “We started with undervine cultivation (rather than mowing as with the rest of our site), but have changed to mowing [undervine],” Byles says. “We observed that cultivation was negatively affecting the vine in terms of nutrition requirements, the necessity to irrigate, and resulting in grape quality that the mowing has already improved upon.
“We are at peace with the wild undervine region. We mow it at about 10 cm in January just to keep it out of the canopy. We observe that these wild vegetative covers do not rob the vine of nutrition or water, perhaps because our Peninsula region experiences steady rainfall throughout the year. Constantly worrying about the grass and weeds growing undervine and mid-row is unnecessary. Managing strategically with far fewer passes is less work, and isn’t having negative outcome on the vineyard.”
Quealy concurs with Byles on this point. “The vineyards are allowed to grow with weeds,” she says. “The weed population is diverse and hardy, having developed for over a decade. We think these weeds are in a cycle that contributes nutrition and does not significantly impact access to water and nutrition for our deep-rooted vines.”
Part of the winemaking process is the exploration of an interest in skin-contact white wines developed by Kevin McCarthy after a visit to legendary Friulian producer Josko Gravner in 2006. This visit inspired the development of T’Gallant’s ‘Claudius’ – widely accepted to be the first skin contact white wine developed in Australia – and its successor, Quealy’s ‘Turbul’ friulano, which debuted with the 2011 vintage. An ongoing experimentation with skin-contact fermentation for white varieties – and an underlying desire to make wines with nothing added or removed – works in lock step with the viticultural program.
“The skin contact program at Quealy is very demanding of viticulture,” Byles says. “We are always looking to increase exposure of the fruit and push back the picking dates to achieve real phenolic ripeness alongside fruit ripeness. The varieties from North-East Italy are well-suited to the Peninsula, but do get picked often more than a month later than the typical varieties of the region. We are stylistically looking for dense, complex flavour profiles and thick skins, and not worried about high acidity or freshness. The reason why we planted Italian varieties to make skin contact wine is that the reduced sunshine of the Mornington Peninsula would ensure these potentially heavy bunches would remain quite small, and thus create powerful wines of distinction.
“In recent seasons we have been far more focused on precision picking – separating clones, blocks and even rows in some circumstances. When kept separate in the winery, there are more options available to the winemaking team. We are also able to understand better how the vineyard is progressing and implement management strategies that can help with future harvests.”
This process of gradual viticultural refinement and ever-increasing familiarity with the site allows Byles and the team at Quealy to translate the terroir of the Balnarring site into the finished wines. “We are all great believers in terroir,” Byles says. “In our case, the intersection of an old vineyard, and the learnings we have built upon, have created a wine style that celebrates sunshine in a region where sunshine is the limiting factor.
“The region remains the preeminent region for pinot gris/grigio. Indeed, the variety is so sensitive to the terroir of the region there is a distinction between volcanic soils making a pinot gris – a fat, luscious style – and the narrow coastal plain of Balnarring creating the leaner, saline pinot grigio style. An interesting observation is that the pinot noirs behave opposite to the pinot gris – the powerful, rich pinot noirs are from Balnarring.”
A quarter of the property, on the gentle slope beneath the vines, has been planted out to native vegetation, and sections of the dam have been reworked to encourage – in coordination with local rangers – a local long-necked turtle population. Those turtles now nest there, with fox protection measures in place, as well as cameras installed to monitor activity. “It’s a site that’s full of life, beauty and care,” says Byles. “We the team are a tight-knit family and community who love coming to work together, and enjoy the fruits of our labour and hard work. Its incredibly important to have this friendship/family as support – looking after and out for one another.
“Our reward as team is walking through the vineyards at the moment, seeing beautiful healthy vines and soil bringing the reward of healthy beautiful bunches and fruit, combined with great winemaking to deliver something expressive of its season. It’s the story about a family’s love and passion for the region, the growing and making of wine, that inspired me and welcomed me with open arms few years ago – a story that is continuously growing.”
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