Quealy Winemakers

Kevin McCarthy and Kathleen Quealy are two of the most significant winemakers on the Mornington Peninsula, and the whole country. The couple founded T’Gallant in 1990, introducing an entire generation to pinot grigio/gris, before selling up Treasury Wines.

Quealy, founded in ’06, is where they’ve continued to innovate with farming and winemaking – now with the help of their son and head winemaker, Tom McCarthy.

The family works with pinot noir and pinot grigio still, but also with less common Italian varieties such as friulano, moscato bianco, moscato giallo, malvasia and istriana. These are often vinified using skin contact techniques, or carbonated using the rustic ancestrale (pét-nat) method. And everything is grown organically, though not all six vineyards are officially certified.

In contrast to the peninsula’s many large, architectural cellar doors and restaurants, Quealy is an intimate, lo-fi operation offering guides tastings for up to six people at a time. If you’re even slightly adventurous, it’s one of the most interesting and insightful tastings you can experience in the whole region. There are cheese platters to snack on, but that’s about the only distraction from the brilliance of the wine.