2009 Mullineux, Syrah, Swartland, South Africa
Critics reviews
For the sake of disclosure, I have known Chris and Andre Mullineux-s financial backer long before they established Mullineux Family Wines. However, this Swartland producer is too important and their wines too good to pass over. Along with Eben Sadie, Chris has been at the forefront of the so-called -Swartland Revolution.
He adopts a minimalist approach to his wine with particular focus upon expression of terroir and this has resulted in the debut of two single vineyard releases in 2010, with the goal of translating the granite and schist soils of Swartland. This is Old World mantra applied to the New World to great effect. But let us begin with their entry-level range entitled -Kloof Street,- which is sourced from vineyards under long-term contracts.
(Neal Martin - WA - August 2011)
About this WINE
Mullineux & Leeu Family Wines
Mullineux & Leeu Family Wines is one of the stand-out producers in South Africa's budding Swartland region. Winemakers Chris and Andrea Mullineux’s ambition is to bottle wines that are a true expression of the Swartland, and all steps of their winemaking process are taken with this in mind. They work closely with a select group of growers who follow sustainable, reasoned farming practices, as well as owning vineyards at their Roundstone Farm in Riebeeksrivier.
In the cellar, apart from minimal amounts of sulphur, nothing is added to or removed from the wine. They do not make use of any yeasts, acids, tannins, enzymes, or fining and filtering agents. “Leeu” (Afrikaans for “lion”) was added to the name recently to recognise the contribution of a new investor to the project.
Apart from their wonderful Syrah, Chenin Blanc-based white blend and a super-rich Straw Wine made from air-dried Chenin Blanc, fermented and matured in old barriques, Mullineux now has a range of spectacular single-terroir Syrah and Chenin Blanc wines, each of which illustrates the amazing potential of the differing Swartland soils. Volumes of the single-vineyard wines are tiny, so availability is extremely limited.
Swartland
After Stellenbosch, the west coast district of Swartland (25 miles due north of Cape Town, between the towns of Malmesbury and Piketberg) now ranks as the Cape's most exciting wine-producing district.
Settled initially by nomadic Khoikhoi from Namibia, the Dutch brought trade and vines to the region in the 17th century. Viticulture was developed only more recently.This contrasts with an ancient geology which has brought a mix of shale, arenite sandstone and granite soils air-conditioned by the Atlantic Ocean nearby.
Chenin Blanc and Shiraz seem to do best, as exemplified by the wines of Eben Sadie and Mullineux.
Syrah/Shiraz
A noble black grape variety grown particularly in the Northern Rhône where it produces the great red wines of Hermitage, Cote Rôtie and Cornas, and in Australia where it produces wines of startling depth and intensity. Reasonably low yields are a crucial factor for quality as is picking at optimum ripeness. Its heartland, Hermitage and Côte Rôtie, consists of 270 hectares of steeply terraced vineyards producing wines that brim with pepper, spices, tar and black treacle when young. After 5-10 years they become smooth and velvety with pronounced fruit characteristics of damsons, raspberries, blackcurrants and loganberries.
It is now grown extensively in the Southern Rhône where it is blended with Grenache and Mourvèdre to produce the great red wines of Châteauneuf du Pape and Gigondas amongst others. Its spiritual home in Australia is the Barossa Valley, where there are plantings dating as far back as 1860. Australian Shiraz tends to be sweeter than its Northern Rhône counterpart and the best examples are redolent of new leather, dark chocolate, liquorice, and prunes and display a blackcurrant lusciousness.
South African producers such as Eben Sadie are now producing world- class Shiraz wines that represent astonishing value for money.
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Description
A wine for which the grapes are sourced from 6 different parcels in Sawartland, 3 from the stony, schist-based soils of Riebeek Kasteel Mountains, 2 from the decomposed granite of the Paardeberg Mountain and one on the iron-rich soils west of Malmesbury. Vines vary in age between 14-20 years. After pressing the grapes are transferred to tank for the alcoholic fermentation, which takes place with the aid of natural indigenous yeasts, followed by 4-6 weeks of maceration on the skins.
The wine is then run off into French barrels, 15% new, but the balance 3rd or 4th fill, for malolactic fermentation and maturation. After about 11 months in wood the wine is bottled, unfined and unfiltered. There is a wonderful purity of blackberry fruit intermingled with smoky black pepper and grilled meat on the nose; on the palate the fruit is juicy, soft and round but underpinned by firm acidity and ripe, fine-grained tannins. The finish is crisp and long.
At its best in 2013, so if you open it now be sure to give it an hour in a decanter to allow a fuller expression of the complex flavours inherent in the wine, surely one of the best Syrahs produced in South Africa.
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