I've just finished reading Campbell Mattinson's book Wine Hunter and I thought I'd post a few comments.
I noticed a few interesting points from this biography. Although O'Shea had French winemaking training, he adopted an approach to blending that violated many French winemaking laws (althougth at the time of his training, those laws were generally unwritten), but in doing so, he shaped many of the characteristics of modern Australian wines.
First was that O'Shea liked to blend Pinot Noir & Shiraz. This was a common occurrence in France. Shiraz from the Rhone valley was used to fortify weak Burgundy vintages, but the practice was rarely admitted and never officially allowed.
Second was his blending of wines from different regions. This is still not allowed in France, unless the wine is sold as plain "vin de table".
O'Shea's remarkable winetasting ability and his ability to identy wines blind reminded me of Rene Loyau in Kermit Lynch's book "Adventures on the Wine Route" (Probably my favourite wine book). Loyau also had the ability to pick the vintage of any wine and also purchased wines from winemakers after extended tasting (much like O'Shea) and always remembered which barrels he had purchased from a winery.
I still had a question at the end of the book. Did Maurice O'Shea ever make the same wine year after year? It seems that most of his wines were individual blends created and named from year to year depending on the vintage. Unlike other wineries which would have the same general lineup of wines each year, were O'Shea wines completely new blends & labels each year. This could be quite confusing for the consumer, or it could be quite an adventure.
Unfortunately, I'm not one of those lucky enough to have drunk any O'Shea wines, and I probably never will, but at least I have Campbell Mattinson's book. I recommend this book to anyone interested in Australian wines. It's an easy and interesting read, covering O'Shea's personal life as well as his winemaking.
Cheers,
Frank.