Book excerpt: The story of Maurice O Shea, Australia s best wine-maker.Maurice O'Shea was the son of an Irish father and a French mother. With that breeding, Maurice O'Shea could hardly have helped being a dreamer, a purist, a perfectionist, a lover of good wine, good food, good jokes and good people. His family bought a vineyard originally planted at Pokolbin, not far out of Cessnock, by two pioneers, Eben and Olly King. When Maurice took charge of the vineyard he gave it the name Mount Pleasant. and it was under that name that his wines became famous.At sixteen, Maurice left Riverview College, Sydney, and went on to study further at Lycee, Montpellier. From there he went to the Grignon Agricultural College, near Paris. After that, he did a viticultural science course at Montpellier University. Later he lectured at Montpellier in analytical chemistry. He came out of all this qualified as a mathematician, historian, wine chemist and botanist. Wine Hunter tells the story of this fascinating man with a unique way of life.