We are proud to share that Mount Pleasant’s Chief Winemaker, Adrian Sparks, has been shortlisted for the 2027 Halliday Wine Companion’s Winemaker of the Year. It is a recognition that speaks to more than twenty-five years of dedication, a deep love of the Hunter Valley, and achievements that include Hunter Valley Winemaker of the Year, multiple NSW Wine of the Year titles, and a string of near-perfect scores from Australia’s most respected critics. For those of us at the heart of Mount Pleasant, it comes as no surprise, Adrian has been consistently making some of the best wines in the country.
“Adrian has been the steady hand through some of the most challenging years the estate has ever faced. He made the hard calls, held the line on quality, and had the courage to strip things back and focus on what truly sets Mount Pleasant apart. What he’s built here over the last decade is something genuinely special.”
– Phil Ryan, former Chief Winemaker & General Manager
OVER A DECADE IN THE MAKING
Adrian joined the Mount Pleasant winemaking team in 2014 and became only the fifth Chief Winemaker in the estate’s long and storied history when he stepped into the role in 2018. That lineage carries enormous weight, and Adrian has worn it with the same confidence that defines everything he does.
The years that followed were not without challenge. Bushfire smoke across the Hunter in 2020 led Adrian to make the difficult decision not to pick a single grape that season. Shortly after, the business entered voluntary administration, and a global pandemic followed. Through all of it, his resolve about what Mount Pleasant needed to become only sharpened.
When the Medich Family purchased the estate in May 2021, Mount Pleasant faced a reset of remarkable scale. There was a cellar door, a vineyard and a winery — but no marketing, no distribution, and a brand to rebuild from scratch. Adrian and the entire team have been central to shaping not just the wines, but what Mount Pleasant stands for.
The labels were rebranded in 2022, drawing on the O’Shea family crest. The cellar door reopened in 2023, and that same year a defining decision was made to shrink production and focus exclusively on what sets Mount Pleasant apart. Lovedale, our blends, and the old vines, some dating back to 1880. Everything produced today is built on Adrian’s belief in site-specific small-batch winemaking, the art of blending and letting the vineyard speak for itself.
From 2025, a regenerative viticulture program has deepened that connection further, with cover cropping, undervine compost, the removal of herbicides, and the recent arrival of sheep to tend to the land. It is exactly this kind of thinking, looking decades ahead, that defines how Adrian approaches everything. With patience and with an eye on what these vineyards might become in another fifty years.
The Halliday shortlisting is a moment worth celebrating and we’re beyond proud of Adrian, the entire Mount Pleasant team and of what Mount Pleasant is becoming.