Exceptional wine, fabulous food, stunning views – take a drive up to the Adelaide Hills and enjoy Sunday lunch at Longview Vineyard.
Fabulous views from the new tasting room and deck.
After a pretty torrid beginning to the new year, The Bloke and I took a break last weekend to enjoy Sunday lunch at Longview Vineyard.
As you can imagine, I get invited to a lot of great food and wine places and events, generally as part of a group of what has become known as ‘influencers’. To be honest, I often turn these invitations down – in part because we prefer to pay our way, and in part because I have doubts about how authentic the hosted large group experiences can honestly be. But every now and then something comes along that piques my interest.
Layers of Longview – created by street artist Mayonaize at the 2016 Piece Project at Longview.
Such was the case with Longview. I enjoyed their generous hospitality about 18 months ago, where they spoke of their plans for a new tasting room and I was keen to see the finished refurbishment, so when they invited the two of us for a private tasting and lunch I decided to take them up on the offer.
Again, I avoid offering reviews on venues and events, preferring to simply share the experience with you dear reader, but when a place gets things totally right I think it only fair to offer credit where it is due.
Nestled in the hills behind the charming village of Macclesfield, Longview Vineyard boasts 63 hectares under vines, producing a range of excellent wines that consistently attract attention nationally, racking up four trophies and three gold medals in the 2017 Royal Melbourne Wine Awards alone. My favourites are their delightfully labelled and well crafted Wagtail fizz, the rich and sophisticated Macclesfield Chardonnay and the Nebbiolo Riserva – which is, according to The Bloke who is particularly fond of this grape, probably the best Australian Nebbiolo around.
The new tasting room is fabulous, giving expansive views to the vine clad hills surrounding the cellar door, and with a shady terrace where the temptation to linger intensifies with the offer of snacks and light meals to accompany the splendid wine.
Antipasto and the insanely delicious baked four cheese manicotto.
On Sundays they offer a sit down lunch in the dining area. Dubbing it Della Casa, lunch consists of enormously generous and mouth-wateringly delicious share plates of antipasto, pasta, a main, with sides, and a dessert selection which is simply sublime. At $55 a head, and accompanied by their wonderful wine (the noble Nebbiolo Riserva in our case) the value is exceptional and we waddled away at the completion of our meal groaning softly.
Smoked chicken with pancetta, tomato and green olive sugo, pea salad and rocket and pear salad.
In the interests of objectivity, I made a point of keeping an eye on the tables around us to compare service and food, and found the rest of the diners enjoying exactly the same food and standards as we were.
Lunch at Longview Vineyard can be enjoyed every Sunday from 12 until 3 pm and the Della Casa menu features hand-made, locally sourced produce accompanied by fine Italian imports (oh, the parmigiano!) all prepared like nonna used to make. (Well, not mine – but you get the idea.)
Aperol jelly-shots with Prosecco ice and raspberries, soft, chewy torrone and fresh baked madorla cookies.
It’s great value, delicious and a splendid way to while away a sunny Sunday.
I’m so glad that I ate lunch before reading this post because the food looks excellent! I’m not a huge fan of influencer events either.