wine growing & wine making

Polperro VineyardSunrise ChristinaninaPhotography 2020 2363
Grape harvest
Grape processing
Wine making
Wine making Polperro
Polperro 2019 PolperroWinery ChristinaNinaPhotography 65

A friendly, but firm hand

Terrific vineyards, surf beaches and a close proximity to Melbourne means the Mornington Peninsula is the perfect home for Polperro & Even Keel wine, Sam Coverdale and his family.

Through his technical grounding and experience, Sam has developed a strong sense of the wine he loves to drink and make – wine that plays to the strengths of particular regions & vineyards and true to a sense of place.

Sam established Even Keel in 2006 with a vision to create drinkable, elegant wines that surprise and celebrate the individual strengths of Australia’s wine regions. Since 2009, he has specialised in premium, single-vineyard wines from the Mornington Peninsula, under the Polperro label. The focus towards increased vineyard health focusing on organic and biodynamic principles.

I believe great wine is made on the vine. Our approach to winemaking respects and capitalises on Australia’s best cool-climate wine regions, resulting in wines with character and balance that are a pleasure to drink.

Sustainability is at the core of our vineyard management, a light & delicate touch. Our foundational undertaking is to nurture our land and increase soil capacity, life and fertility, through ecologically respectful, organic, no-till, regenerative farming practices. Increasing biodiversity and vine health from the soil up, with sustainable land management through cover crops, natural water retention, organic management of disease pressure and utilising beneficial insects for natural pest management.

We promote soil health through minimal disturbance, reducing the impact on the land by not unnecessarily disturbing the natural soil structure. This approach, coupled with additional nourishment through organic compost teas, brewed from organic plant matter sourced from our own certified organic and biodynamic farm; applied seasonally to our vineyards to continually improve soil health. With the use of biodynamics, we encourage our soil web to thrive, and create balance and fertility within our soils.

We strongly believe this is the key of regenerative farming and ‘farming for the future’.

Our Talland Hill vineyard is Certified Organic & Biodynamic through NASAA (National Association for Sustainable Agriculture Australia). We are well underway to achieving for certification across all of our owned vineyards.

We are winegrowers with a deep love and care for the land. We make, grow and farm our vineyards using a philosophy of sustainability and regenerative agricultural.

How we achieve this is by using a mix of biological, biodynamic and organic practices. We have achieved organic and biodynamic certification at Polperro in 2019.

– Sam Coverdale

Wine range

Polperro & even Keel wine

Polperro wine – est. 2009 /

Our wine is estate grown, a single vineyard expression of our unique sites from the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia. This region’s distinctive attributes are a cool maritime climate, bounded on three sides by ocean and the varied altitudes of the verdant hinterland, cooled by the salty winds and nurturing the ancient rich volcanic soils.

Sam Coverdale, owner and winemaker, along with his team, tends to every facet of vineyard management, wine growing and wine making. This ensures that the resulting wines demonstrate a clear sense of place where the elements of the soil, micro climate and the people who tend to the land come together to create something truly unique. We manage 8 vineyards, 3 of which are used to create our single vineyard wines.

Our Mornington Peninsula single vineyard range consists of Talland Hill, which is Certified Organic and Biodynamic, Landaviddy Lane (sub region Shoreham) and Mill Hill (sub region Red Hill) the highest vineyard on the Peninsula.

We grow, make and farm our vineyards using a philosophy of sustainability and regenerative agriculture, applying a mix of biological, biodynamic and organic practices.

Even Keel Wine – Est. 2006 /

Celebrates the individual strengths of Australia’s wine regions with a small production of elegant and balanced wines grown in regions best suited to specific varieties.

Even Keel’s small production of wines is established through long-term relationships with growers from individually selected vineyards in some of Australia’s best and most distinctive wine growing regions.

Whether it be Chardonnay from Tumbarumba, Pinot Noir from Mornington Peninsula, Syrah from the Canberra District or Pinot Noir, Sam focuses on wine making techniques that reflect the particular influences specific to each region.