With Musk Creek and Tussie Mussie, this site completes the trio of Quealy’s premier-league, leased Mornington Peninsula vineyards. Established by doctors Campbell and Christine Penfold in 1994, it mainly features the MV6 clone. Some 114 and 115 were also planted, taking advantage of the premium clones that became available around the same time. Located on the coastal plain, it sits just 30 metres above sea level behind Balnarring village. It’s a dry-grown, well-exposed, north-facing site with alluvial clay and red soils washed down from Red Hill. Tom McCarthy tells us it produces “gorgeous, small bunches of glossy Pinot Noir”. Stylistically, Campbell & Christine sits at the more concentrated, muscular end of the Pinot spectrum.
This site is famed for producing powerful fruit, and 2024 was another year of paltry yields, further heightening this character. With that in mind, Tom took a mindful, gentle approach in the cellar. The fruit–picked over three days in February (27th and 29th) and March (5th)–came off the vine in pristine condition and was destemmed to mostly small vats for fermentation, with a small portion fermented in barrel. The wine was pressed to barrel after 22 days for 10 months’ maturation in hogsheads, 25% of which were new. The wine was then bottled unfined and unfiltered in February 2025.