97 POINTS
Shanteh Wale - Winepilot
Fruit is sourced from the 1965 vines planted at Rosehill. Matured in less than 20% new puncheons for 9 months before blending. A stroll through a botanical garden could be likened to this floral, aromatic showstopper of a wine. Hibiscus, tea rose and creeping ivy meets raspberry leaf tea, redcurrants and wild fig. Lemon thyme, persimmon and blood plums. Acidity centres the plot of this wine, circling back to the moreishness and succulent palate. Tannins are powdery and even. Some black cherry pit gives a rounded depth to the middle palate, there is so much going on with this wine. It’s a bottle for opening and drinking over many hours, uncovering truths as you go. Drink with good conversation, a charcuterie board and warm socks on. Beautiful. Drink now or will age glacially if cellared well for another decade and more.
96 POINTS
Toni Paterson MW - Halliday Wine Companion
Rosehill '65 vines with a 10% addition of '46 Rosehill shiraz post-maturation. Utterly gorgeous and expansive with a generous mid-palate and opulent, dark, soft fruits. Dark cherries and mulberries with distinctive floral tones. Supple, silky and sumptuous yet fluid, vibrant and alive.
Adrian Sparks is really lighting things up with these Mount Pleasant releases. This Mountain A is an absolutely brilliant Shiraz and I'm in love. Red fruits and berries cling to blueberries and mulberries that lead the way. Add some mandarin peel, pan juices, Campari and red currants. Purple flowers add lift and an attractive perfume. Seductively silky and polished, super fine tannins show some of that synonymous Hunter Valley earthiness. Incredibly glorious, I adore its medium-bodied shape. Classy Hunter. Drink to ten years+.
96 POINTS
Mike Bennie - The Wine Front
This is from the 1965 Rosehill plantings. It would formerly have been the 1965 Rosehill bottling, so you’re now getting a sweeter deal on pricing. (GW)
MB: Quite an intense and brooding red – dark, blueberry, mulberry compote with green olive, saline minerality, clove-cinnamon brown spice, dried leafiness and an almost dried seaweed, umami-like quality. Potent. Tannins shimmy in a suede haze over the wine, tightening gently but with direction. Pitch perfect medium weight too. Serious, complex, very good. 95 points
KS: A bit quiet at first. Strawberries, red cherries and orange peel, Campari, ruby grapefruit. The texture is what speaks here, medium-weight with a deep flavour stain mainly in the mid-palate, it’s bloody and meaty, with some dead flower/sous-bois character. Medicinal cherry, boot paste, porcini mushrooms, hazelnut sponge cake. I like it, it’s red fruit-scented and black fruit-flavoured. Very nice but somehow I can’t quite push it to 95. 94 points
GW: Purple fruit, ripe raspberry, dried roses. A bit more grunt and weight than the Mountain C, thicker tannin structure, some liquorice richness, and a ferrous edge, with a long finish of super length. Such power in a medium-bodied wine, give it some time. 96 points.
96 POINTS
Gary Walsh - The Wine Front
Purple fruit, ripe raspberry, dried roses. A bit more grunt and weight than the Mountain C, thicker tannin structure, some liquorice richness, and a ferrous edge, with a long finish of super length. Such power in a medium-bodied wine, give it some time.
96 POINTS
Erin Larkin - Robert Parker Wine Advocate
The 2023 'Mountain A' Medium Bodied Dry Red is all brambly raspberries, tobacco, cinnamon cassia, red apple skins, red snake lollies, paprika and cherries. In the mouth, the wine is supple and fine, shaped by a web of tannin that is both pliable and chewy. It gives the wine a bouncy feel, and the length of flavor endorses the quality through the finish. This is a superb wine that is built for the long haul. It is excellent and powerful but not heavy. 14% alcohol, sealed under screw cap.
95 POINTS
Mike Bennie - The Wine Front
Quite an intense and brooding red – dark, blueberry, mulberry compote with green olive, saline minerality, clove-cinnamon brown spice, dried leafiness and an almost dried seaweed, umami-like quality. Potent. Tannins shimmy in a suede haze over the wine, tightening gently but with direction. Pitch perfect medium weight too. Serious, complex, very good.
