A rich red with intense black fruit aromas has taken out the prestigious award at NSW Wine awards
Mount Pleasant’s iconic Hunter Valley Mountain D shiraz, 2018, took honours at the recently announced 2019 NSW Wine awards with NSW Wine of the Year.
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A winery in the Hunter Valley has taken home this years prestigious award of NSW Wine of the Year.
Mount Pleasant’s iconic Hunter Valley Mountain D shiraz, 2018, took honours at the recently announced 2019 NSW Wine awards.
Mount Pleasant Chief Winemaker Adrian Sparks said the judges were impressed by the rich red drop, with intense black fruit aromas.
“The Mountain D comes off the Old Hill which is planted in 1880 by Charles King, a pretty significant vineyard across the Hunter Valley and Australia,” he said.
“Everyone talks about Hunter Valley and their semillon but I think shiraz is now leading the charge for the region, and to be honest the Hunter Valley has led a lot of the renaissance for a lot of the resurgence for the medium bodied wine styles which you see across Australia and everywhere.
“I think we’ve done quite well in being true to what we do and I think a lot of people are following.
“It’s a richer style of wine, dark fruit spectrum, oak is always in the background rather than the foreground so you see fruit first, the palate has got a lot of fruit weight. If you compare it to a Barossa it’s a baby, it’s very pretty and light.
“A good tannin structure, good acidity and good balance which is what it is all about.”
It’s the second year running Mount Pleasant has been awarded the trophy for Best in Show, following the success of Old Paddock & Old Hill Shiraz 2017 last year.
Mr Sparks said great vineyards are the first step in making great wines and dry weather has been good for wine making.
“A lower crop yield will always end up with a really good fruit intensity and smaller grapes,” he added.
“Always resulting in good colour and great flavour, great intensity … but not so good for accountants who want us to make more fruit and make more wine.”
The NSW Wine of the Year award continues a great show season for the Mount Pleasant team which recently took home 27 medals and trophies at this year's Hunter Valley Wine Show including Gold for Mountain D Shiraz 2018.
In addition, Mr Sparks was awarded the title of Hunter Valley Winemaker of the Year.
This weekend also saw the launch of the 2017 vintage Maurice O’Shea shiraz, named after the forefather of the modern Australian wine industry and Hunter Valley legend.
“Maurice O’Shea was the first wine maker here at Mount Pleasant back in 1921 when he purchased the property,” Mr Sparks said.
“He’s regarded as Australia’s greatest ever winemaker, he was making table wines back when everybody else was making fortified wines.
“Phil Ryan bought the Maurice O’Shea principal in about 1991 and it’s our best wine, we make our best wine every year, our best colour barrels and it’s our tribute to him to represent the year that we had.”