Australia's first great winemaker was a Frenchman. As a 24 year old, in 1921, he walked onto a hillside vineyard in the Hunter Valley north-west of Sydney and in a hard, hot climate set about growing and crafting wines that, when finally opened as fifty- and sixty-year-olds, became renowned as Australia's first great wines. He made these wines without electricity, with bare bones equipment – his winery, Mount Pleasant never once turned a profit during his 30 year struggle – and with a broken heart. What he achieved out there on that hillside is one of the miracles of wine. The Wine Hunter is Maurice O'Shea's remarkable story.
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