2023 Quealy Feri Maris Pinot Grigio

This glitters in the glass with citrus, floral notes and a deep mineral core. It drives through the palate with snappy acidity and grippy but finely laced structure, closing with a citrusy, salty tang.

The grapes for Quealy’s top Grigio bottling grow on the home vineyard in Balnarring. Established in 1982, it was one of the region’s first vineyards and is now certified organic and managed without irrigation. The Pinot Grigio was harvested by hand on 20th March, pressed as whole bunches and settled. It was racked with partial solids to stainless steel (70%) and hogsheads (50% new). The must fermented with indigenous yeasts, and there was no addition of sulphur. The wine was left on lees without stirring.

Tom McCarthy and the Quealy team have been impressed by the increasing quality of Quealy’s home vineyard, which has now been organically farmed for almost a decade. Partial barrel fermentation and maturation have become part of the winemaking to help frame the intensity of flavour and texture they find in the fruit grown on the site. The Feri Maris was racked before bottling on 1st July—nice and early to retain freshness and natural CO2 from the fermentation.

It’s a potent expression of Feri Maris in 2023, courtesy of mature, dry-grown vines, dramatically low yields and an even glide through the ripening season.