Mount Pleasant Maurice O'Shea Hunter Valley Shiraz 2017 [GF 97+]

97+ Points - Gary Walsh Wine Front " The winemaking and style of these 2017 reds is probably the best I’ve seen from this venerable old winery. Hats off to Adrian Sparks and Jim Chatto. This is a mix of Rosehill and ‘Estate’ fruit, with a sneaky, but very clever addition of 6% Pinot Noir. It’s now being made in a way that O’Shea would approve of, I suspect. It’s a beautiful wine, excellence in simplicity and verity of fruit, rather than industry in the winery. Perfumed, so fine and long, effortless flow and sense of grace, with an amalgam of mixed berries, spice, aniseed, and earth, supple but deep-seated and controlling tannin, bright acidity, and a soaring finish. Even as a young wine, it floors you with its quiet authority, confidence and charm. It’s totally at ease with itself, you might say. Best O’Shea of the modern era by a stretch, for me. Toying with a 98 point score, but let’s be patient, eh?" Maurice O'Shea was a pioneer of Australian wine, creating long-lived, highly celebrated wines from the 1920's through to the 1950's that were admired the world over. Named in Maurice O'Shea's honour, this wine was crafted using the very best rigorously selected parcels from the Mount Pleasant Estate to create a wine that firmly speaks of its Hunter Valley home.