Insider Edit 4 min
Insider Picks - 5 July: The Winter Edit
5 July 2026
Quealy Winemakers's winter kitchen, the Cape Schanck boardwalk at its most dramatic, and MPRG's current show before it closes.
Quealy Winemakers
A foundational Peninsula producer best known for pinot gris, friulano, and a cellar door with real local soul.
Known for Kathleen Quealy Pioneer ProducerPinot Gris and Friulano ProgramPobblebonk LabelHalliday 95-Point Winery
Quealy Winemakers · Balnarring Why we’d goQuealy helped teach the Peninsula what it could grow beyond pinot and chardonnay, the cellar door still carries that experimental, unpretentious spirit.
Quealy is important not because it is flashy, but because it helped teach the Peninsula what it could grow. Kathleen Quealy and Kevin McCarthy were early believers in alternative Italian varieties here, and the cellar door still feels grounded in that experimental, quietly pioneering spirit.
The wines are distinctive, food-friendly, and often better value than the region's higher-profile labels. The Pobblebonk pinot gris is the place to start. This is where locals send friends who say they want to understand the Peninsula rather than just photograph it.
Stop in before lunch nearby and buy a mixed six on the way out. Balnarring is slightly off the main wine trail, which is half the point.
Worth knowing
- Best for
- Cellar door visits · Wine lovers · Food lovers · Local produce
If you only do one thing
Taste the Pobblebonk before you buy anything else, it's the clearest expression of what Quealy does differently.
Works well with
Hurley Vineyard · Balnarring Bakehouse
Filed under Cellar DoorSlowGardenSpringSummerAutumnAll YearLocalsCouplesFirst Timers
Winemaker Tom McCarthy
Varieties Pinot GrisPinot NoirFriulanoRibolla GiallaChardonnay
Worth seeking Pobblebonk
Editor's verdict
Quealy Winemakers was the Peninsula estate that kept asking awkward questions: why not Friulano, why not skin-contact Pinot Gris, why not Ribolla Gialla? Kathleen Quealy and Kevin McCarthy started the project in 2003, and the answer turned out to be: those varieties grow beautifully here. Son Tom McCarthy now makes the wines - amphora fermentations, certified organic viticulture, a range that would feel at home in Friuli.
Visiting
Walk-ins welcome daily 10am–5pm for groups under 6. Bookings preferred for larger groups. Wines by the glass. Artisan cheese plates and seasonal food pop-ups. No dogs.
The wines
Key varieties: Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, Friulano, Ribolla Gialla, Chardonnay.
Worth seeking out: Pobblebonk.
Frequently asked questions
Does Quealy Winemakers take walk-ins or do you need to book?
Walk-ins welcome daily 10am–5pm for groups under 6. Bookings preferred for larger groups.
Does Quealy Winemakers have a restaurant?
No formal restaurant. Artisan cheese plates available; seasonal food pop-ups include Sunday pizza and the La Petite Crêperie caravan.
Are dogs allowed at Quealy Winemakers?
No - the official website states 'We kindly ask no dogs'.
Not sure how to build a day around Quealy Winemakers?
Search Peninsula InsiderIn the journal
Stories that mention Quealy Winemakers
These pieces give you the context a listing page never does - the when, the why, and the who-it’s-for.
Cellar Door Dispatch 6 min
Quealy Winemakers: The Peninsula pioneer that still feels gloriously unpolished
2 May 2026
If you care about how the Mornington Peninsula became more than a pinot monoculture, start here. Quealy is not glossy and that is exactly the point - this is one of the region's formative tasting rooms, built on curiosity, Italian varieties, and a refusal to behave like a tourist estate.
Cellar Door Dispatch 6 min
The Cellar Door Short List: Four Producers Worth the Stop
6 April 2026
Not the biggest estates, not the flashiest rooms. The four Peninsula cellar doors where the wines - and the people pouring them - actually change how you think about the region.
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