Mount Pleasant

Maurice O'Shea Shiraz 2013

• 

  Vintage 2013
  98 points www.winecompanion.com.au

Full, bright crimson-purple; one or two Maurice O'Shea releases since '87 have lacked drive and/or complexity, this is on the far extreme of high quality, pulsating with opulent, yet perfectly balanced and detailed red and black fruits; the silk and satin mouthfeel reflects the fruit on the one hand, a fine web of ripe tannins and grainy acidity on the other.

• 

  Vintage 2013
  95 points www.winefront.com.au

For the most part, Mount Pleasant has been made like a South Australian Shiraz, so it’s been a bold showy style as a youngster, even though it shows its origins as it gets older. And now? It’s much less showy, much more typical of the classic Hunter style with less oak, less extract, less alcohol and finer balance. Good. Welcome back to the future. Just medium bodied and pretty and spicy to smell, with regional red earth, red and black berries, aniseed and a touch of youthful char and clovey oak. It’s clean and fresh – true Hunter Burgundy in style with its weight and delivery of flavour – has a little small red berry crunch to the acidity, and enough dry tannin to keep it trim and shapely. It’s savoury, yet not shy on bright red fruit flavour. It has length. It will cellar and improve for as long as you want to keep it. We don’t know how long screwcap seals last as yet: this wine will surely put that to the test.