Many small businesses are family run, and Quealy Winemakers on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula is no exception. What sets these winemakers apart is a history of experimentation with Italian grape varieties.
“We are imaginative winemakers, we are adventurous and we’ve managed to be in parts of the wine industry where people notice you, and it’s been good for us,” says Kathleen standing in their well-tended vineyard.
Kathleen is a winemaker at Quealy and, with husband Kevin, traveled extensively across northern Italy in the 1990’s. There they became fascinated with Pinot Grigio and later pioneered its cultivation in Australia. At the time, the decision to introduce a new style was risky.
“When we first started, we were met with enormous scepticism and a lot of teasing,” Kathleen recalls.
Ignoring their critics, Kathleen and Kevin founded and ran the successful T’Gallant winery on the Mornington Peninsula, and in 1990 released Australia’s first unoaked Chardonnay.
Kathleen and her son Tom are winemakers at Quealy. Source: Supplied
Experimentation led to Kathleen becoming the first woman honoured with a ‘Legend of the Vine’ award by Wine Communicators of Australia in 2016. She was also dubbed the ‘Queen of Pinot Grigio’ by wine critic James Halliday.
Love at first sight
Kathleen’s love of Italian styles began while growing up in Sydney’s Haberfield, surrounded by Sicilian migrant families.
“And if I visited friends, I would see the families making wine in a laundry tub, and it was love at first sight for me,” she recalls.
Kathleen and Kevin bought the Quealy Winemakers property in 2003 and began re-planting. And now their 29-year-old son Tom is following in the family footsteps. Tom has an Agricultural Science degree and is already making his mark in the family wine business. After a stint living around Friuli in northern Italy, Tom began pioneering Friulano, a wine variety produced using a method known as ‘skin contact’.
“It’s an ultra-traditional technique from the region of Italy bordering Slovenia,” he says patting a giant terra-cotta amphora imported from Tuscany.
Ancient wine-carrying amphora date back 5,000 years. Source: Supplied
At Quealy, Friulano is grown using organic principles, fermenting in the terra-cotta urns without added yeast. The technique of extended maceration on skins unlocks the aroma, and rich tannins of Friulano's deep copper-coloured fruit.
“I think Quealy has always been prepared to push the limits a little … starting with Pinot Grigio in the 1990’s and now with new varieties like Friulano, and winemaking techniques like the amphora, we are pushing boundaries,” Tom says stirring the grapey stew.
Business challenges
Quealy currently produces up to 150,000 bottles each year, grown across five Mornington Peninsula vineyards that the family either own or lease. The cellar door sits in the middle of a working winery, a drawcard for weekend tourists keen to experience winemaking up close.
Sales are mainly from their cellar door and by online order to NSW and Queensland, with exports to Japan and Europe rising steadily.
White wine created using skin contact- the practice of using white grape skins in the winemaking process. Source: Supplied
However, Kathleen is quick to point out that every dollar earned goes back into the property: either buying a tractor or re-building a shed.
“There are always problems and worries in the wine business,” she says looking around their estate. “Because it’s years between planting a vine to harvest and there’s a lot of capital buried in there, that you can’t turn into cash.”
Tom is also learning about small business cash-flow challenges by running his own label, Kerri Greens. It’s co-owned with Lucas Blanck, Quealy’s vineyard manager, who hails from an old established winemaking family in Alsace in northeastern France.
Bright future
Kathleen is regarded as one of Australia’s top women winemakers. And this year, Kathleen and Kevin were among eight finalists in the prestigious ‘Winemaker of the Year Awards’.
With the next generation now well established, and Tom’s Friulano range rolling out, Quealy has carved a niche in the competitive winemaking business.
“In the wine industry, people love brands that are established and continue to make consistently good wine,” says Tom serving customers at the tasting area.
“So if we can do that, hopefully, the business will only get better.”
