THE PRODUCER
The original Old Hill vineyard in the lower Hunter Valley was planted by Charles
King in 1880 and purchased by the legendary Maurice O’Shea in 1921 together with
adjoining parcels. He called the property Mount Pleasant.

Having studied oenology and viticulture at Montpellier University in France
Maurice O’Shea set about crafting fine table wines from parcels of vines in the
Hunter Valley. In 1932 the McWilliam family - a successful producer of fortified
wines in the Riverina - acquired a half share of the winery, and the remainder
in 1941, while allowing O’Shea to continue his work. This allowed for the
purchase in 1946 of Rosehill (then planted to Syrah) and Lovedale (Semillon) and
the creation of wines throughout the 1940s and 1950s, until his death in 1956.
Maurice O’Shea remain legendary to this day.

These are wines with ethereal balance that defied their elegance by aging for
decades. Mount Pleasant returned to those glory days in the 2000s sourcing fruit
from vines planted by O’Shea, while respecting his philosophy of releasing small
lots of distinctly individual wines.

In 2021 McWilliams was purchased and Mount Pleasant (having already had dropped
the family name from the labels several years before) is now an independent
entity.

THE WINE
The Mount Pleasant Maurice O’Shea, named for the founder of Mount Pleasant and
legendary creator of Hunter wines, is spoken of in reverential tones. Parcels
from the best vineyards are blended in a wine to honour Maurice O’Shea as he had
blended wines and named them after friends in the 1950s. Arguably the Hunter
Valley’s best red year in, year out.

INFORMATION
Type:RedVintage:2006
Country:AustraliaRegion:New South Wales
Sub region:Hunter ValleyGrape:100% ShirazStyle:Rich and IntenseSweetness:DryABV:
14.5%Drinking window:2015-2026Size:750mlFood match:Beef and Venison

CRITICS SCORES
We choose our wines based on a range of criteria(seehow we choose our wines)of
which critic scores is justone. Rather than simply highlight the best score to
promote a wine, our average critic score is calculated from the scores provided
by several respected wine critics, who we follow for specific regions. They do
not represent all critic scores and, wherever possible, we try and give more
weight to more recent reviews. Where appropriate we consider market-based scores
like Global Wine Score or Wine Searcher Average scores.

As a rule, we look to offer wines that achieve a92/100average critic score or
better and frankly a lot of very good wines simply don’t make the cut. As a
high-end provider we want to reflect that positioning in the quality of wines we
offer. Such wines are only a tiny fraction of those generally on offer in the
market. We believe that an average score is a more conservative and
representative approach, but it is still subjective and only offered as a guide
to our customers, who will (and should) do their own research. We will add
individual critic scores to our website in the future.