OLD & NEW HUNTER LEGENDS
The physically small and short-sighted Maurice O’Shea was one of the first winemakers in Australian to adopt varietal labelling. He also named his fine wines after individual vats, vineyards, friends and relations. His quirky system was loved by collectors of the era, as it connected them personally with the wine characters of the day. For instance, Henry was in honour of Henry Renault, a Sydney wine merchant who supported and encouraged O’Shea. Others names included Richard (Tyrrell’s), HT (Hector Tulloch), etc. JK ‘Johnnie’ Walker, the great Sydney restaurateur, did much to put Maurice O’Shea’s wines on the map. Max Lake said Maurice O’Shea ‘was a great blender of wine, able to achieve effects like a painter uses colours and textures. Luckily for his reputation, he had the great good fortune to be subsidised against economic failure by McWilliams.’ O’Shea made a succession of beautiful wines, many of which were single cask offerings and therefore of very limited production. 1929 Grandmother, 1937 Mountain A, 1939 Mountain C, 1944 Mountain D, 1942 Henry I, 1945 Henry II, 1947 Henry III, 1942 Pinot Hermitage, 1952 Pinot Hermitage, 1952 Prince and 1954 Richard all have been written about. Max Lake describes many of these wines as ‘great, beyond imagining.’ The character and presence of these wines are still etched in the memories of many Australian winemakers and wine people. But success in wine did not always translate to success in marriage. In 1937 Marcia O’Shea separated from her husband. That year also happened to be Maurice O’Shea’s greatest vintage. Aspects of this drama of triumph and sadness are depicted in the Australian painter Gary Shead’s Mount Pleasantania, a work that evokes the triumph of a perfect vintage and the loss of family through irreconcilable differences. Maurice O’Shea is painted presiding over an act of transubstantiation whilst his wife Marcia is taken away by a satyr. Maurice O’Shea apparently said of the 1937 Mountain A Dry Red,
‘THAT WINE IS MY HEART AND SOUL IN A BOTTLE. IT IS THE BEST WINE I WILL EVER MAKE.’
120 The Wine Journal – 2023
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