Review: Longview ‘Juno’ Rosato 2023. An Aussie rosé leader

There’s a story to be told on how this Longview Rosato came to be, one that also follows the journey of how the Longview Vineyard focus shift from French varieties to Italians. Worth a dive. And while we’re at it, why don’t more winemakers take rosé seriously? It isn’t typically an expensive wine to make, and as the Provençal have shown, you can get decent dollars a bottle. Indeed, rosé winemaking in Provence is an industrial endeavour about anything but grapes. We’re not in France with this Longview ‘Juno’ Rosato. No, this blend of Nebbiolo and ‘Pinot Nero’ is more in a mod Italian super rosé mode, borrowing only the French love of funny bottles and stylish packaging. What I like here is the texture—the softer edges. So often, acidity is the rosé sore point, with early-picked red grapes offering up shedloads of harder malic acid (not converted into lactic acid as the wines don’t go through malo). Stir in some rogue tannins and leafy fruit, and you have a recipe for rawness. Rosé is a heartburn wine for me, except for the wines that use winemaking inputs like some barrel work, a little riper fruit, some lees stirring etc to introduce some roundness. There is a lovely ride of strawberries and watermelon fruit in this rosato, for example, with little lipstick and red apple waxiness and a sense of ripe fruit. It’s not a complex wine, but it is generous, fresh, dry, summery, and personable. The more you look, the more you appreciate the mastery – just a better rosé.

THE VERDICT

• Best drinking: now
• Score (out of 20): 18
• Score (out of 100): 93
• Alcohol %: 12.5
• RRP (in $AUD): 28
• Winery website: https://www.longviewvineyard.com.au/
• Would I buy it?: sure would