Can do: Creative use of aerosol spray paint has its place in the wine world

 

Most business owners would look warily at someone wandering around their property armed with spray cans of paint.

That’s not the case at the family owned Longview Winery in the southern Adelaide Hills region of South Australia, at least on one day of the year.

That’s the day Longview holds its Piece Project event.

The Piece Project sees the best Australian street and graffiti artists go head to head in a live battle creating their own large pieces of art. Then the winning artwork becomes the label of Longview’s premium Shiraz, “The Piece”.

The winning artwork from 2016 and as it appeared on The Piece label.

Some of the favourite artworks also are selected to go on permanent display around the winery.

The Piece itself is a seriously good shiraz for which Longview selects its best rows of fruit that are then selectively hand picked to produce the winery’s absolute best red. Whole bunches are fermented in small open fermenters and the resultant juice given minimal French oak treatment to ensure the fruit is the star of the show. Only 200 dozen are made each vintage.

Obviously, it is not cheap plonk, selling for $80-$90 a bottle, but it is a top example of cool-climate shiraz that repays cellaring for a decade or so.

The Piece is not the only Longview wine where art plays a part in the label design. The Macclesfield range features on its label details from an abstract sculpture hewn from local pink marble that reflect the undulating topography of the vineyard.

It started with a Macclesfield riesling but now includes cabernet sauvignon, syrah, chardonnay and gruner veltliner, an Austrian grape that has found a favourable home in the Adelaide Hills. The reds and chardonnay sell for about $45, with the Riesling and gruner veltliner about $30.

Another imported variety that has found favour at Longview is the noble Italian nebbiolo, responsible for the famous reds of Barolo and Barbaresco. Longview’s Saturnus ($50) is an excellent Austgralian interpretation of the style, showing great depth and flavour and repaying cellaring.

Much more approachable is their Rosato rose ($26), made from a dedicated clone of nebbiolo that is one of my favourite Aussie roses, with red berries, flowers and spice, with a lovely crisp finish. Also very approachable is the Fresco ($32), pictured, a blend of nebbiolo, pinot nero (the Italian name for pinot noir) and barbera, which shows cherries, strawberries and blackberries, with spice and a mineral acid backbone, with the fruit again showing the way

Longview also produces a varietal barbera ($40), an intriguing and tasty Vista shiraz barbera ($23), Queenie pinot grigio and Whippet sauvignon blanc (both $23), LV shiraz cabernet ($23), Yakka shiraz and Devil’s Elbow cabernet sauvignon (both $30).

If you can get to South Australia it’s well worth a trip to this picturesque winery in the southern Adelaide Hills.

More details at www.longviewvineyard.com.au