Longview Juno Nebbiolo Rosato 2021

The usual impressive packaging is, as always, matched by seriously good wine inside the bottle. This is a blend of 90% Nebbiolo, mostly the 1-11 clone known in Italy as the Rosato clone, from 25-year-old vines, and 10% Barbera, made in a near bone dry style. The cracking 2021 vintage is working its magic for wines like this, not just the array of brilliant Rieslings we’ve seen (Rieslings have been hogging the limelight because so many are released not long after vintage ends, but expect to see many wonderful 21’s over the coming years). Lovely pale salmon pink in colour, this is delightfully fragrant with florals, spices, raspberries and even hints of citrus. Good intensity, this is fresh and clean with lovely flavours and yet it retains some elegance. Fresh acidity. This lingers beautifully. A cracking rosé. 

I will confess that quite a few years ago, a friend and fellow writer and myself had a long discussion about whether Rosé could/should ever receive high scores. Did the style simply preclude that? In retrospect, I may have been on the wrong side of history on that one but in my defence, we saw so many bog average, clumsy, cloyingly sweet rosés that it was near impossible to envisage wines worthy of lofty points. Thankfully, those days are gone and we have wines like this. A cracking rosé, and really good value.