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This is just the third release of Quealy’s Musk Creek Chardonnay, yet the wine has quickly become a prominent mainstay in the estate’s portfolio. With Tom McCarthy now firmly at the helm of the day-to-day running of things chez Quealy, this should come as no surprise. After all, he has extensive experience with the variety through his one-time side project, Kerri Greens—and, well, this is Mornington.
Quealy’s Chardonnay is from a half-hectare plot of vines on Musk Creek Vineyard in Main Ridge. This well-established, dry-grown 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 150 metres—and planted in 1997 by Tom’s parents, Kevin McCarthy and Kathleen Quealy—it’s a cool, low-yielding, late-ripening site rich in the region’s signature red soils.
It was another poor flowering season on the peninsula, resulting in low crops of small bunches and berries with incredible concentration. The fruit was picked by hand in the middle of March and pressed as bunches to barrel (approximately 30% new) with full solids for fermentation. Tom moved the wine as little as possible to coax the mineral character from the fruit, and stirred the lees sparingly throughout. The wine matured in puncheons for 10 months. It’s another tasty rendition of Chardonnay, grown and made the Quealy way.