2021 Mount Pleasant Maurice O'Shea Shiraz

98 POINTS

Toni Paterson - Halliday's Wine Companion

It is an outstanding wine of distinction, if somewhat chameleonic in nature. On one hand, it is ethereal, fragrant, and composed, but at the same time, it is powerful, audacious and layered. This multiplicity of perspectives makes Maurice O'Shea one of the most captivating wines in the country. Red fruit purity is the essence of the wine. But layered upon this is a touch of floral perfume, a thread of citrus zest, lacy berry fruit and a hint of spiced Persian lamb. The length is phenomenal, and every sip proves beyond doubt why it is worthy of greatness, even in a challenging year. A compelling, charismatic wine of incredible beauty. Drink now with a double decant or tuck into the cellar for decades.

Huon Hooke - The Real Review

Deep red with a good purple tint and a bouquet that is reticent at first and builds meaty/charcuterie and savoury underbrush aromas with exposure to air. The palate is full-bodied and fleshy, rich and dense with plenty of extract and satisfying length, the tannins and flavour lingering long and harmoniously on the follow-through. A dramatic wine and very impressive. A Hunter shiraz of gravitas, with a great cellaring future. An outstanding O'Shea. - 98 points

Campbell Mattinson - The Wine Front

This is the best O'Shea Shiraz made since O'Shea himself was making them. The tannin structure, the meatiness, the mineral. This wine gives an insight into what makes this vineyard so special in a way that I don’t know that I’ve encountered before, in a young wine. ..... It has length and complexity and all those things but this wine has more than that. It’s like it’s saying, Let me show you something. I took one sip and thought, Don’t go. I took another and thought it again. This isn’t just a wine, it’s an insight.." - 98 points

Ned Goodwin MW

A cooler year, producing medium-bodied wines of clarity. The voice of place, audible. In this instance, a blend of the more favorable of the estate's holdings to serve as a magnificent flagship. Yet while the narrative is important, it is this wine's beguiling, floral transparency that serves the real story. The tannins, delicate; the acidity, filigreed. The effect is one of an intricate mandala, shape-shifting across identities on the palate. Extremely complex and mellifluous, all at once. Quite the transcendental wine, reminding me of shiraz meeting pinot noir in a far off idyll. Drinkable now, but best from 2026. Screw cap. - 97 points