If you ask Tom McCarthy to describe the difference between Pinot Grigio and Gris, he'll tell you Quealy’s single-vineyard Pinot Gris comes from higher altitude vineyards. This means the grapes need to be left on the vine to ripen into late Autumn, and they produce heady and richer body wines. The Grigio on the other hand comes from the warmer Balnarring sites where the fruit is picked earlier and produces racier wines.
This is 100% estate Mornington Pinot Gris sourced from basalt-derived volcanic soils in the Musk Creek Vineyard. The dry-grown, own-rooted vines were planted in 1997 and enjoy a north-north-east aspect. This site enjoys cooler conditions and ripens later than Tussie Mussie. It’s perched at 180-210 metres altitude atop Main Ridge. Here it overlooks Westernport Bay and the heads, and the persistent, cooling breeze from Bass Strait ensures the fruit maintains freshness. The site produces bunches of tiny, pink berries with excellent acidity—the result is a deeper, spicier, more complex and mineral Gris. The fruit is always hand-harvested.
The ‘Alsatian-style’ press cycle is a long process. Whole bunches are loaded into the press and gently extracted over six hours to capture only the most delicate phenolics. The juice was then racked, and half fermented (wild) in stainless steel while the rest went to French oak (10% new) for structure and complexity. There was no bâtonnage.