2022 Quealy Musk Creek Chardonnay

The time has come: finally, Quealy does Chardonnay. With Tom McCarthy now playing a more prominent role in the day-to-day running of things chez Quealy, it was only a matter of time before a Chardonnay was added to the line-up. After all, he has extensive experience with the variety through his one-time side project Kerri Greens and—well, this is Mornington. Quealy sources its Chardonnay from a one-hectare plot of vines in the Musk Creek vineyard in Main Ridge. This well-established (vines planted in the 1990s) site is already a source of Pinot Noir for the team and is highly regarded for producing top-quality Mornington Chardonnay. Perched atop Main Ridge at a lofty 150 metres—and planted in 1997 by Tom’s parents, Kevin McCarthy and Kathleen Quealy—it’s a cool, low-yielding and late-ripening site rich in the red soils of the region. The fruit was picked by hand at the end of March and pressed as whole bunches to barrel (13% new) with full solids for fermentation. To coax the mineral character from the fruit, Tom moved the wine as little as possible and only stirred the lees twice throughout. “The fruit came in small bunches with small berries, so there’s plenty of fleshiness already,” he told us. The wine went through malolactic conversion and matured for 10 months in barrique. We’ll leave the last couple of words to Tom: “Bloody tasty!”