2023 Billy Button Rosso, Alpine Valleys

Previous releases of Billy Button’s Rosso have been a blend of Shiraz, Tempranillo and Refosco, from the Alpine and King valleys, and I’d imagine that this is along similar lines. Straight down the hatch with this one. This is well made, well flavoured and well priced. It tastes of an assortment of ripe berries and twiggy herb characters, it feels soft in the mouth, and it’s tidied up nicely by grapey tannin. It’s an easy wine to like, and an easy wine to drink.

90 points Campbell Mattinson for The Wine Front, May 2026

It's funny to give this wine a drinking window when everyone who buys it drinks it straightaway. Early drinking is Rosso's raison d'être. It's an eye-catching vivid purple in hue. It's fruit-fuelled in summer red and black berries, high spice, dusty cocoa and licorice and comes dressed in firm, savoury tannins that make the wine flow so easily. Drink to 2027.

89 points Jeni Port for Halliday Wine Companion, August 2024 

The 2023 Rosso is a medium-weighted 36/32/26/6 blend of Shiraz, Tempranillo, Sangiovese and Nebbiolo, fermented in open vats with a combination of indigenous and cultivated yeasts and matured in a mix of old oak, stainless steel, and Flexcubes before the final blending and bottling took place in October 2023.

About this producer

Billy Button Wines was launched in 2014 by winemaker Jo Marsh. Named after the beloved Australian perennial with the eye-catching globular golden yellow flower heads, the label has built a strong following as a champion of the so-called alternative varieties and the Alpine Valleys of Victoria. Working to a negociant model, fruit is sourced from growers in Buffalo Creek, Merriang, Myrtleford, Porepunkah and Whorouly as well as the Whitlands in King Valley.