Taking a Long View

The Saturno family’s Longview property enjoys expansive vistas south across the Fleurieu Peninsula to Strathalbyn and Langhorne Creek beyond. It is a landscape of seemingly endless beauty and little wonder the place is a highly desirable wedding party venue. And a destination for proposals of both the romantic and corporate kind. There’s luxe accommodation and a glam day spa on the site too, as well as multiple event spaces.

But for your correspondent it’s the captivating liquids fermented from the grapes which the vineyard grows which are most worth celebrating. Although this does mean that corporate celebrants can be assured that there’s something both serious and complex—or fun and frivolous—to seal a deal. And prospective newlyweds thinking of tying the knot at Longview will be delighted in the knowledge that they’ll have wine in their glasses which is worthy of toasting the future.

Cabernet Sauvignon and Nebbiolo on Longview’s ‘vista' hillside. Pic: Tim White

The images accompanying these words were captured on the 20th February 2021 and a good amount of vineyard reworking had been taking place, as numerous rows of Cabernet Sauvignon were being grafted over to Barbera and Nebbiolo. Nebb—especially—is a red that captivates winegrower Peter Saturno, although all varieties on the property are cultivated with the same meticulous attention to detail. It’s just that some require a lot more input than others and Nebbiolo is definitely one of them—as do most serious Italian black grape varieties, for that matter.

Wine Reviews

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Pic: Tim White

Bella Erori

Nebbiolo is this weird thing.

Pic: Tim White

Pic: Tim White

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I do love a magpie. Pic: Tim White

Written and published by Tim White, 2026

Latest Longviews

Longview Vineyard Jupiter Barbera 2024 (Adelaide Hills, SA)

This smells so bloomin’ good. Punnets of everything in the cane berry family: darker blackberry beginning, then loganberry, and sharp white raspberry evolving. Super deep, although not super complex (to begin with). But then there’s a sniff of pink rose and lots of aromatic shape-shifting and evolving as it sits it the glass. Gets shinier and more seeped boot polish serious. There are bracing tannins aplenty on the palate, but they’re easy to digest and match with luscious cane berry fool flavours through the middle, which then get tight tannin salivating again and pink salt melty. There’s something of an old waxed open fermenter character about it also, but I’m sure it hasn’t seen any. Some—just the right side of Virginia tobacco—leafiness and smoked oyster shell. Becoming more flake (tobacco, not the fish) in time. The cane berry pippy mid-palate lusciousness extends back too. So there’s lots to suck on here. And as this slurpy-sharp Barbera accumulates a bit more oxygen, it rounds out in the mouth just like the nose. Inhale a glass and thenlet it sit a bit. 94(95)/100 (e) - 9/10 (h) - 😋😋😋 - $40 cellar direct.

Wine two

Wine three

Longview Macclesfield Syrah 2022 (Adelaide Hills, SA)

Plum pudding dried fruit spiciness, a most stimulating sniff of Lampung black pepper, then deep sweet-sharp raspberry, and red wet dirt. Gunpowder even. With air some Prosciutto di Carpegna also, and a transitory tweak of fenugreek. There’s an aromatic openness to this, but also considerable fruit intensity. The pepper and gunpowder dusts the palate also, which is packed with sharp, plum pudding fruit. There’s space between the intense fruit notes while the tannins are kind-of Italianate textured. Fruit mince pie peel and dried fruit lasting long on the finish, among the sweet-sapid mouth-aroma wafts of melty pastry. Super-smart syrah. 95(96)/100 (e) - 9/10 (h) - 😋😋😋 - $47 cellar direct. Really complex and harmonious this, even more so on day two. Will get even lovelier with five years plus in bottle*.

*When I first tasted this wine my experience.

Longview Macclesfield Shiraz 2022, Adelaide Hills, South Australia

Longview Macclesfield Cabernet Sauvignon 2021 (Adelaide Hills, SA)

Deep, dark figgy fruitcake. Getting more chocolate panforte with air. And then there’s pure, glossy forest berry fruit too. Mulberry dense and rye sourdough crusty, and soused cherry stone. There's fabulous deep fruit flooding the tongue too: fruitcake moist and with juicy berry concentration, glistens and sparkles. There’s a carbon paper tannin shimmer and bitter chocolate adding edginess, before a gentle sea salty break at the back. Is it all cabernet sauvignon here I’m wondering?* Because there’s a kind of terra cotta nebbiolo dustiness in this—and such great melty tannin. Don’t really care either way: it’s just a delightful interpretation of a fabulous grape variety. 95(96)/100 (e) - 9/10 (h) - 😋😋😋 - $47 cellar direct. *I was aware that a Longview Cabernet Sauvignon was in the line-up, and well-aware that there's nebbiolo aplenty on the estate: which is why I pondered this. But I’m assured it is pure cabernet sauvignon.

I took a trip to Longview in 2021 to have a look—primarily—at the several different clones of Nebbiolo planted across the estate, and there was already evidence of changes taking place among some of the cabernet sauvignon blocks. This being the conversion of some as Treasury Wine Estates—TWE—had decided to conclude sourcing cabernet from the property. This was around the time that TWE—and others—were mired in red wine over-supply as a result of the China market export hiatus. (No suggestion intended here that this was an influencing decision.)

TWE, for the uninitiated, is the owner of Penfolds, Wynns Coonawarra Estate, and a few other fine Australian wine labels which the company doesn’t give a shit about these days.

TWE’s disdain for Lindeman's and Wolf Blass is a particular disappointment to this individual. That said, at least there’s some respect shown in the latter's online presence. The great wine heritage of Lindeman’s, however, in both the Hunter and Coonawarra, barely warrants a mention on the dilapidated website that represents this distinguished wine house. Which was established in 1843 incidentally, a year prior to Penfolds. This disrespect is really most sad and encapsulates all that has gone awry following much of Australian wine's commodification post the delusional pronouncement of the Strategy 2025, way back in 1999.

Treasury Wine Estates’ landing page—FYI—reads (in part): ‘We combine world-class winemaking with world-class brand marketing. We aspire to be the world's most desirable luxury wine company.’ This as an H3 level heading. While one certainly can’t dispute TWE’s winemaking credentials—there are a number of truly gifted wine creatives in the company’s employ—there’s only one brand with receives world class brand marketing attention. And this, of course, is Penfolds.

But no matter: Treasury’s aspirational luxury wine-lovers’ loss is our gain. For a good bit more of the Longview’s north-facing ‘Vista’ hillside has been turned over to more nebbiolo, including some CN 142 clone which is most highly regarded in Piemonte. As it should be here, of course. And it is to those who believe that we can grow fine nebbiolo in Australia.

The ’21 and ’22 vintages of Longview’s Saturnus nebb, incidentally, are formidably good and well worth seeking out. The ’22 Fresco nebbiolo, pinot, barbera blend reviewed below is a quite delicious entryway to the style of red wines this estate produces, in a more easygoing form.

Longview's finest, original rows of cabernet sauvignon have not been neglected, of course, and these are responsible for this divine wine. The ’21 vintage deselection of Longview’s cabernet sauvignon was released under the Devil’s Elbow label and won the trophy for Best Cabernet Sauvignon at the Royal Melbourne Wine Awards in 2022. So there you go. It sold for under $30 a bottle and, by the way, had more than a little luxury about it.

Longview Macclesfield Cabernet Sauvignon 2021, Adelaide Hills, South Australia

Longview Fresco 2022 (Adelaide Hills, SA)

Smells most Italianate this, in a brick dusty, tangy, dehydrated peel, caneberry pippy way. There’s a good mix of sapid and sweet smelling things, as some cut grassiness. Although not green. Wet rock moss. Sapid tasting too, with wet/dry tannins, which are slightly melty (any nebb in here?*). Cane berry—loganberry—sharp tasting too, with sour plum—of the Asian dried plum kind. Dried rose too. Not the longest or deepest, but sharp. Still looks good on day three, which I reckon is a most positive thing. 91/100 (e) - 8/10 (h) - 😋😋 - $32 cellar direct.

Without wishing to labour the point, although I will.

Longview Fresco 2022, Adelaide Hills, South Australia

Longview Juno Rosato 2023 (Adelaide Hills, SA)

Has dried peel and positive pong. White blackberry earth. Some bresaola cured meatiness. Has perfectly judged shape on the palate—creaminess into melty terra cotta dustiness. Sapid-pippy fruit and chew. Blood orange glacé peel and loganberry pips bursting. Spelt pastry melty. Quite a delight to taste this. (And to — later — drink on, a number of occasions). 95/100 (e) - 9/10 (h) - 😋😋 - and at $26 cellar direct this is incredible value, although I must now write was. The latest Melbourne Wine Show rosé trophy winning 2024 has just—early December—replaced the ’23 on the Longview website, and it’s now $32 cellar direct.

I’ve also learned that despite the very recent vintage rollover—the first week of December—there is not a drop of ’23 trickling through distribution channels, as the last of it was taken by a clearly discerning — and significant—Adelaide entertainment destination. So should you find yourself enjoying the hospitality of the members enclosure at The Adelaide Oval —and other of its other select venues —you’ll have a decent rosato at hand to enhance your summer sporting engagements. A sublime accompaniment would be wagyu bresaola should any be on offer.

With a few notable—and really only occasional—exceptions your correspondent is not beguiled by Adelaide Hills Pinot Noir. So there’s no better use that I can think of for Hills nero than to partner it in a complimentary and supporting role to Nebbiolo in rosato. Or in a méthode, of course, and many delicous examples of these abound (see here for my review of the latest divine ’22 Daosa Rosé). The ’23 Longview rosato was in the ratio of 70:30 of nebb to nero as I recall it, while the ’24 ups the nebb ante higher still. I’ll let you know when I’ve tasted the ’24. And FYI, the ’23 only earned a bronze at the Melbourne show of ’23. A bit too chewy for some probably.

Longview Juno Rosato 2023, Adelaide Hills, SA

Longview Saturnus Nebbiolo 2020 (Adelaide Hills, SA)

Blood orange, sage. Then gets broodier plum and broad bean into wet clay. This is interesting. Galangal cedary. Old pink rose dried peel. Emphatically Nebb. Quite gentle in the mouth, but still has plenty of cane-berry pippy flavour at its core. Easy going tannins — to begin at least, because they power through to close. There’s also something a bit broad beany about the palate, and there’s dense mouth-sucking XO tangerine rind and crushed iced oyster shell. So, most toothsome. There’s considerable width, but to this critical palate it just lacks length of fruit on the palate to go with the quite remarkable mouth aromatics. It is, however, even better on day two and, as can be seen from my hedonic rating, I’d most happily enjoy more than a few glasses of this unambiguously distinctive and distinguished Nebb. 92/100 (e) - 8/10 (h) - $55 cellar direct.

Longview now have 8.3 ha of Nebbiolo ranging from the first 1995 plantings followed by more in ’98, additional top workings in ’03, and then more on a north facing slope in ’21. If memory serves this later material is established alongside the vineyard’s top Cabernet Sauvignon blocks which is most auspicious, as Longview grow extremely fine Cabernet Sauvignon.

The clones planted across the vineyard are as follows: CVT CN 230, 111, 142, Mudgee, F12V7, F12V13, FPS 06, and FPS 10. So all the good stuff, and if you’re interested in reading up on the two last FPS clones, which are both cleaned up ex-Torino material, there’s great detail to be found at the UCD website here.

The highest block, which on a clear day overlooks the Southern Ocean, is planted to Mudgee and 230. It’s tough country and as Peter Saturno tells me, ‘The soils here are very bony, and heavy with quartz and iron stone. Organic matter has been laid twice and tilled in after three months.’ This part of the vineyard is also incredibly exposed to winds off said ocean and was hit heavily in the spring of ’22 therefore reducing crops significantly for the ’23 vintage. (As growers in McLaren Vale to the west are also acutely aware). Longview has now planted native Casuarina trees along the boundary to act a s wind break for future protection.

Longview Macclesfield Grüner Veltliner 2022 (Adelaide Hills, SA)

Has pristine fruit complexity this. Dehydrated pineapple. White nectarine. Plus something more sapid and daikon radish like. So: crunchy, intense smelling, with a cool yellow glow. Get's more glacé fruit complexity as it sits. It’s similarly fruit complex on the palate — all the above perfectly ripe fruits — but also with some pear skin chew, mizuna leaf, and fine, melty sea salt adding textural complexity. There’s a touch of slinkiness through the middle also which suggests judicious lees contact. Pure vibrant uncluttered: just the right Murray pink salt melty acidity. Not grippy exactly, but certainly mouth-sucking. Beautiful Gruner fruit expression. 94(95)/100 (e) - 9/10 (h) - 😋😋😋 - $30 cellar direct.

Longview’s 2.5 hectares of Grüner Veltliner is an important source of the variety for other Hills producers including CRFT and Hahndorf Hill. Indeed it made a up a decent portion of the latter producer’s ’20 White Mischief which was awarded the prestigious Dr. Rod Bonfiglioli Trophy at the 2020 Australian Alternative Varieties Wine Show.

This wine meanwhile was awarded the Best Single Varietal White Trophy and The Francois De Castella Trophy for Best Young White at last year’s Melbourne Royal Wine Awards which is some achievement.

Longview Macclesfield Grüner Veltliner 2022 (Adelaide Hills, SA)