Mount Pleasant Maurice O'Shea Shiraz 2014

99 Points - James Halliday

Arguably, one of the greatest red vintages in living memory', says Mount Pleasant. The flagship wine. Destemmed and crushed, short cold soak, open-fermented, matured in large format French oak (30% new) for 18 months. Has the gently throbbing power of a Rolls Royce; superb, deep crimson-purple hue, itself rare in the Hunter Valley. Countless layers of black fruits have absorbed the oak and put the undoubted tannins into limbo land. O'Shea would have died a happy man had this been his last wine. Dissecting it now is an academic exercise at best, so great is its future. This is as close to a 100-year potential as you are ever likely to find.96 Points - Campbell MattinsonIt tends towards richness without quite getting there; another way of saying that it mines the perfect fruit intensity zone for a Hunter Valley red. It’s all cherries, red and black, with boysenberry and even plum, though rusty spice and red earth characters play key roles too. We have ourselves here a perfectly turned out wine. Tannin ties a ribbon around the old vine fruit in a most beguiling – and assertive – fashion. Creamy oak lends a hand, but a gentle and guiding one at most; it’s the bus driver, not the bus. The mouthfeel: silken without being syrupy. This will still be ticking over in captivating fashion in 20 years time.