2021 Mount Pleasant Elizabeth Cellar Aged Semillon

Product Description

In 1921 the young Maurice O’Shea, freshly returned from studying viticulture and oenology in France, persuaded his mother Léontine to buy the Old Hill vineyard at Pokolbin, in the heart of the Hunter Valley. First planted in 1880, its volcanic soils reminded him of the hillsides of the southern Rhône. O’Shea named the estate Mount Pleasant and planted Old Paddock alongside it, and over the next three decades he became the father of modern Australian table wine. At a time when the country drank mostly fortified wines, he crafted elegant, long-lived reds and whites through meticulous blending and the use of French oak, often naming them after his friends.

O’Shea remained at the helm until his death in 1956, and his legacy has been guarded ever since. Remarkably, only five chief winemakers have led Mount Pleasant in more than a century, the latest being Adrian Sparks, named Hunter Valley Winemaker of the Year. In its centenary year of 2021 the estate passed to the Medich family, who have invested in the vineyards, the winery and a beautifully restored homestead and cellar door. Mount Pleasant’s reputation rests on the same qualities O’Shea prized: longevity, elegance, balance and a true sense of place.

At the heart of its white wines lies the Lovedale vineyard. O’Shea chose the site in 1939 and planted it in 1946 on deep, sandy alluvial soils, and its first wine followed in 1950. Lovedale went on to set the benchmark for Hunter Valley Semillon. The great Hunter writer Max Lake called it the closest thing in Australia to Montrachet, and it is widely regarded as one of the finest Semillon vineyards in the world. Hunter Semillon is one of wine’s great paradoxes: picked early, light in alcohol and austere in youth, it slowly unfolds in bottle into something rich, toasty and profound.

Elizabeth was first made in 1967, named in honour of Queen Elizabeth II and inspired by the first visit of a reigning monarch to Australia in 1954. Drawn from Mount Pleasant’s own estate vines, it is a classic, unoaked Hunter Semillon, fermented cool in stainless steel and bottled young to capture its purity. Today it is released as a cellar-aged wine, held back for around five years so that it reaches you just as the magic of bottle age begins. Pale straw with green glints, it offers lemon, lime and green apple woven with lanolin, beeswax, honey and buttered toast. Light-footed yet intense, with a gleaming thread of acidity and a long, dry, mineral finish, it is superb with oysters, prawns and grilled white fish, and will continue to evolve gracefully for years.