Tag Archives: Hunter Valley

A super red – the 2007 McWilliams Mount Pleasant Maurice O’Shea

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I got quite excited this evening picking out the wines for tomorrow’s Master Chef dinner being prepared by Jay Huxley and attended to by a great group of work colleagues.  I am so excited about the friendship, wine and food!  All the ‘work’ selecting the wine line-up (in a post soon to come!) got me excited to have a nice drop of red while blogging tonight.

That nice red ended up being the 2007 McWilliams Mount Pleasant Maurice O’Shea Shiraz.  WOW!  What a wine!  Having had glasses of the 2005 and 2006 Maurice O’Shea in the restaurant associated with McWilliams Mount Pleasant winery in the Hunter Valley, I had the impression that the Maurice O’Shea Shiraz was not worth the bottle price and was another over-priced red wine living on its previous reputation.

But one Sunday morning about 11 am having just finished breakfast in their restaurant (and complaining about how the Maurice O’Shea was overpriced!), Nick (who was the restaurant manager at the time) brought me a glass of red to try.  It was magnificent!  He then told me that it was the 2007 McWilliams Mount Pleasant Maurice O’Shea and was about to be released in the next few days.  I bought four dozen on the spot.  I then found out a few days later that Campbell Mattinson rated it as the best Shiraz that year (2010/11) in his great book, The Big Red Wine Book.

I have been laying it down in the cellar to develop over the last two years, but decided it was time to try one of the bottles.  This wine is spectacular now, but will probably be even slightly better in a couple of years.  Within minutes of decanting, it really opened up.  It is smooth, perfectly balanced, with good tannins.  It has very big, fresh fruit tasting of blackberries and chocolate liqueur.  The hue is a vibrant, deep red, almost purple color.

The only problem now is figuring out the best time to drink this wine!  I expect it will last a long, long time, but is so approachable now.  I will probably have a bottle every three months until I can’t stand it any more and then make this my every day drinking wine until it is entirely consumed.

I bought a lot of the 2007 Hunter Valley Shiraz’, including the Tyrrell’s Vat 9, Tyrrell’s Stevens, the De Iuliis Limited Release Shiraz, the Meerea Park Alexander Munro, the Thomas Kiss, the Pokolbon Estate (made by Andrew Thomas), the Brokenwood Graveyard, the Tulloch Hector, the Glandore Hamish, the Tintilla Estate Patriarch, and about five more to be able to do a side-by-side comparison.  They are all excellent, but the only one I think can compare to the Maurice O’Shea is the De Iuliis Limited Release Shiraz.  I just need to do a comparison of those two wines, and do it soon!

I was hoping to save some of this great wine for one of my American friends who is coming to dinner tomorrow night, but I am afraid, I might just drink the entire bottle tonight.  WOW! What a wine!

The wine lifestyle without drinking wine!

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We went to our place in the Hunter Valley last weekend.  It was the first time we had been there in about two months.  We did not tour wineries, we did not drink wine, we did not go out (we ate every meal at home) after we arrived, but we still enjoyed the ‘wine lifestyle.’  Surrounded by vineyards, taking in the greenery of the newly budding vines, and watching regeneration start to bloom was extremely exciting.

Hiking the Great Northern Walk through Mount View, NSW

I went hiking along the Great Northern Walk, we also hiked the Hunter Valley Gardens (where we have an annual pass for the very reasonable price of $85 per year and visit many, many times), we watched The Bourne Identity, and mostly we just chilled in our place taking in the great views, reading, and a little bit of blogging.  It was wonderful and we did not spend any money!  We just had a wonderful time utilizing what we already had – a house to stay in, the use of the annual pass and food in the fridge.

View from back porch in Hunter Valley

With the unbelievable quiet, we slept like babies and shared quiet time together and without any constraints of scheduling anything in advance, we were able to choose what to do at a moment’s notice.  I completely shut down my ‘work’ brain and was able to relax.  And we are going to do it all again this upcoming long weekend.  We will have four straight days in the Hunter.  We do have one meal scheduled with great friends for Saturday lunch and we will be drinking more wine from our cellar.  Again, there will be limited schedule constraints and no cost (other than what we have already spent) to enjoy time in the Hunter Valley.

Chardonnay vines on our place in Hunter Valley

I love walking among the vines, love watching the early stages of the wine production process, and am filled with hope for a great vintage and the upcoming season.  Taking in nature and the views and being able to let my mind room free was a tremendously relaxing and recharging experience.  Yes, I could have an unencumbered weekend in Sydney, but I would not feel like we were getting away, nor have the quietude we achieved in the Hunter Valley.  Plus being among the vines, driving past the great wineries and smelling the fresh air made me feel I was living the wine lifestyle, even when not drinking wine.

But that will change for this long weekend.  I have some great wines planned, including sharing a bottle of the 1999 Meerea Park Alexander Munro Semillon and the 1992 Lindemans Pyrus with our good friends at Saturday lunch.