From the vat, the queen of pinot by Richard Cornish

FROM THE VAT the queen of pinot

Kathleen Quealy walks through her vineyard then stops. “Listen,” she says. There is a buzzing, a humming, the dry flitter of dragonflies chasing each other through the vines, bees foraging in the meadow flowers underfoot. The vineyard is alive, bursting with life. “This is where the winemaking really starts,” says the Balnarring winemaker. “It starts right here in the vineyard. Because we farm this place organically, it is in great shape, and we can make the best wine we can from the grapes.”

Kathleen is a force of nature. A straight-talking female winemaker who is acknowledged by many as changing the wines we drink today. At 18, she was studying winemaking at Wagga TAFE, now Charles Sturt University. “I was showing interest in the nonmainstream grape varieties such as pinot grigio, and I was aware of the hostility of the traditional winemakers, middle-aged men,” she says. “They did not like change. But they liked what change brings.”

Kathleen and her winemaking husband Kevin McCarthy arrived on the Mornington Peninsula in 1988, working at Kings Creek winery. In 1994 they drove past an old apple orchard, knocked on the orchardist’s door, and made him an offer. They named the place T’Gallant and were soon planting pinot noir, a variety the Peninsula is famous for, but not chardonnay. “I never had my heart in it,” says Kathleen. Instead, they planted the other pinots, pinot gris, and pinot grigio. “Grigio and gris work beautifully with food like seafood, snack food, spring fava beans, pesto, pasta and cheese, asparagus,” she says. They also turned dining on its head, along with their chef Lou Lechte, with the casual and rustic La Baracca restaurant serving casual, seasonal dishes that worked beautifully with their wines. They also enlisted Cameron Russell to lead autumn mushroom tours which ended in pinot noir tasting in the barrel room. Kathleen remembers one guest being Gough Whitlam. When T’Gallant was sold to what is now Treasury Wine Estates in 2003, Kevin stayed on as winemaker. Kathleen concentrated on developing her next venture, Quealy Winemakers.

They bought an existing vineyard on Bittern-Dromana Rd that year. They complemented the pinot noir vines with a mix of mostly unknown Italian varieties such as friulano, moscato giallo, riballa giallo and marvia. Kathleen worked on her style of winemaking, developing her unique European style of beautiful soft, generous-bodied wines. She opened a cellar door by simply putting a door between two barrels in the cellar.

Over the past 19 years, Kathleen has slowly handed the reins of Quealy over to their son Tom. He works alongside Kevin in what Kathleen calls ‘The Collective’. The team continues to make elegant and egalitarian wines that are of outstanding value for their quality. The cellar door has grown up into a smart casual place to try and buy the wines and meet the family. “We make a lot of wine, and if we keep the prices reasonable, people can afford it. Wine is not about being exclusive. We make wine to be enjoyed by all.”

Quealy Winemakers 62 Bittern-Dromana Rd, Balnarring quealy.com.au