2021 Longview Vineyards Shiraz Barbera Vista Adelaide Hills Australia 750 ml

Longview embodies the try-anything, no-rules (just right) Aussie spirit that runs through our favorite wineries from Down Under.

Since the Italian-Australian Saturno family aren’t beholding to long traditions and strict appellation rules, they were free to honor their roots when planting their first vineyard in the late 90s, putting Barbera in the ground alongside Shiraz and Pinot Noir.

Their vineyard is located just outside the township of Macclesfield in the Adelaide Hills, sitting on slopes that bring Old World estates to mind. The family’s inaugural vintage was 2001, and in the two decades since they have earned significant awards and praise.

Every wine in the Longview range is raised on their estate vineyard, the red varieties on the northern slopes, where a favorable exposure leads them to ripen consistently. The high diurnal temperature shifts result in a beautiful breadth of flavor in the finished wines. 

For their Shiraz-Barbera, they pick the fruit by hand, fully de-stem, and then do a long, cool, open co-fermentation for two weeks. They raise the wine in neutral French oak barrels and bottle the wine within 10 months. It makes for a refreshing and surprisingly lightweight wine on the palate, with juicy acidity and smooth tannins matched beautifully by flavors of fresh raspberry, light vanilla, fresh blueberries, thyme, and black tea.