Even Keel - Chardonnay, Tumbarumba, Australia (2023)

TASTING NOTES

Mineral, nectarines, stone fruit and florals with toast, a faint whiff of vanilla. Textural with lots of fresh citrus and a persistent, lengthy finish.

The fruit is handpicked and whole bunched pressed using a gentle champagne press cycle. No enzymes or sulphur are used at the press tray and the juice is oxidatively handled to get rid of oxidative enzymes early on in the winemaking process. The wine is left at ambient or if needed chilled to 15 degrees and transferred to old French oak barrel with full solids and minimal sulphur added. The wine is allowed to ferment using wild yeast and no additional sulphur added until the following summer when in most cases the wine completes full malolactic fermentation. After 10 months, the wine is racked off gross lees and transferred to tank. The resulting wine is bottled using no finings and minimal filtration and minimal sulphur.

Before Winemaker Sam Coverdale found “a patch of dirt” to care for as his own, it was with Even Keel Wines that he first forged his path establishing his own wine label in 2006. Despite setting down roots on the Mornington Peninsula with Polperro Wines, Sam continues Even Keel as a means to explore terroirs he doesn't get to work with directly all the time. 

Each region is selected for having conditions best suited to specific varieties—be it Pinot Noir from the Mornington Peninsula, Chardonnay from Tumbarumba or Shiraz from Heathcote—but with enough elasticity to follow his curiosity in exploring alternative varietals such as Cortese, Fiano and Tempranillo.

Working with trusted grower partners across the regions, often former colleagues or relationships cultivated earlier in his winemaking career, Sam is entrusted with input throughout the growing season. At harvest, the fruit is carefully hand-picked and then vinified and matured at the winery on the Mornington Peninsula. The same care and dedication is shown to these selected parcels of fruit as to the wines of the Polperro label. The resulting wines are Sam’s interpretation of each region, always in pursuit of consistency, refinement and balance. And never without a spirit of adventure and curiosity.