Mullineux
This exciting young estate in Swartland South Africa was started by newlyweds Chris and Andrea Mullineux. They are at the forefront of a revolution drastically changing the reputation and quality of wine from the region. They use a natural minimalist approach to produce three wines of real character.
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(6x75cl) 2019Tim Atkin MW (95)
Chenin Blanc is the marquee variety here, with support from 26% Clairette Blanche, Grenache Blanc, Viognier, Semillon Gris, Viura and Verdelho, most of which is sourced from 37 to 70-year-old vines. Lemon, lime and wet stone flavours with some phenolic grip and remarkable palate length.Inc. VAT£309.95 -
(12x75cl) 2023Wine Advocate (93)
This is a blend of old-vine Chenin Blanc, Clairette Blanche, Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Semillon Gris. The Mullineux 2023 Swartland Old Vines White gives you a taste of South African winemaking excellence at a very interesting price. The vines are planted on granite soils with a beautiful layer of clay five meters down "that acts like a sponge," Andrea Mullineax tells me. This helps to concentrate and enrich flavors of preserved lemon, saffron and pastry cream filling. With each variety coming to ripeness at a different time, the grapes are whole-bunch pressed and not co-fermented. The Chenin Blanc, from dry-land bush vines, plays an important role in determining the lasting texture of the wine. It matures in foudre and some barrique, with 10% new oak.Inc. VAT£370.01 -
Wine Advocate (93)
This is a blend of old-vine Chenin Blanc, Clairette Blanche, Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Semillon Gris. The Mullineux 2023 Swartland Old Vines White gives you a taste of South African winemaking excellence at a very interesting price. The vines are planted on granite soils with a beautiful layer of clay five meters down "that acts like a sponge," Andrea Mullineax tells me. This helps to concentrate and enrich flavors of preserved lemon, saffron and pastry cream filling. With each variety coming to ripeness at a different time, the grapes are whole-bunch pressed and not co-fermented. The Chenin Blanc, from dry-land bush vines, plays an important role in determining the lasting texture of the wine. It matures in foudre and some barrique, with 10% new oak.Inc. VAT£216.80 -
(1x75cl) 2021Vinous (93)
The 2021 Chenin Blanc Schist come from the Roundstone Estate on rocky, tile-like stones that are less water retentive and produce more compact vines with smaller bunches and extra structure. It has a more austere bouquet than the Granite, slate-like and earthier by comparison. The palate is taut and saline on the entry, quite strict with a little more nerve than the Granite, pointed towards the finish with a tingle of stem ginger on the aftertaste. This will require a little more bottle age. Very fine.Inc. VAT£104.65 -
(1x75cl) 2022Inc. VAT£124.13 -
(12x75cl) 2023Wine Advocate (96)
With this wine, we return to a mineral profile that is not unlike the Granite Chenin Blanc. However, the Mullineux 2023 Swartland Schist Chenin Blanc is slightly more ample and layered in terms of mouthfeel. Water does not penetrate as deeply on schist soils as it does granite, and the fruit is a little richer and more concentrated as a result. Water tends to run off easily, and the plant root systems remain shallow and produce smaller clusters, a less vigorous canopy and berries with thick skins (with more sunlight reaching the clusters through the leaves). This wine starts off with an incredibly citrusy feel, and yet it also delivers cool-climate Chenin Blanc aromas of green apple and honeysuckle. This wine is built to last, and it's no wonder it was served last in our tasting of the three single-vineyard Chenin Blancs. I would bet on the longest drinking window for this bottle. Those complex fruit flavors still need to flesh out.Inc. VAT£873.67 -
(1x75cl) 2023Wine Advocate (96)
With this wine, we return to a mineral profile that is not unlike the Granite Chenin Blanc. However, the Mullineux 2023 Swartland Schist Chenin Blanc is slightly more ample and layered in terms of mouthfeel. Water does not penetrate as deeply on schist soils as it does granite, and the fruit is a little richer and more concentrated as a result. Water tends to run off easily, and the plant root systems remain shallow and produce smaller clusters, a less vigorous canopy and berries with thick skins (with more sunlight reaching the clusters through the leaves). This wine starts off with an incredibly citrusy feel, and yet it also delivers cool-climate Chenin Blanc aromas of green apple and honeysuckle. This wine is built to last, and it's no wonder it was served last in our tasting of the three single-vineyard Chenin Blancs. I would bet on the longest drinking window for this bottle. Those complex fruit flavors still need to flesh out.Inc. VAT£123.86 -
(6x75cl) 2023Wine Advocate (96)
With this wine, we return to a mineral profile that is not unlike the Granite Chenin Blanc. However, the Mullineux 2023 Swartland Schist Chenin Blanc is slightly more ample and layered in terms of mouthfeel. Water does not penetrate as deeply on schist soils as it does granite, and the fruit is a little richer and more concentrated as a result. Water tends to run off easily, and the plant root systems remain shallow and produce smaller clusters, a less vigorous canopy and berries with thick skins (with more sunlight reaching the clusters through the leaves). This wine starts off with an incredibly citrusy feel, and yet it also delivers cool-climate Chenin Blanc aromas of green apple and honeysuckle. This wine is built to last, and it's no wonder it was served last in our tasting of the three single-vineyard Chenin Blancs. I would bet on the longest drinking window for this bottle. Those complex fruit flavors still need to flesh out.Inc. VAT£407.15 -
Vinous - Neal Martin (97)
The 2015 Syrah Schist has a wonderful, nuanced, complex bouquet that I would happily place in any lineup of top Syrahs from the Rhône. So nuanced, so mineral and delineated, this just blossoms in the glass. The palate is beautifully balanced with fine tannins, judiciously spiced with white pepper and sage. Highly complex, terroir-driven and delicious, this is a Syrah that delivers on all fronts at 10 years of age. It easily surpasses the bottle drunk just after bottling. World. Class. Syrah. Tasted blind at the 10-Year-On horizontal in London.Inc. VAT£159.72 -
Tim Atkin MW (95)
The Schist Syrah is sourced from the extensive Roundstone property and, like its stablemates Granite and Iron, is fermented with whole bunches and aged in one third-new oak. Rich, savoury and concentrated, but with considerable underlying finesse, rose petal notes and refreshing, palate-cleansing acidity. 2021-30Inc. VAT£491.98 -
Tim Atkin MW (97)
My pick of the three top Mullineux Syrahs in 2018, this world-class red is the most perfumed and alluring of the trio right now. Combining fruit from the Kasteelberg and Roundstone, this has violet and lavender aromas, some sap and grip from 100% whole bunches, incredible focus and grip and a plush, seductive mid palate.Inc. VAT£471.49 -
(12x75cl) 2019Greg Sherwood MW (97)
The vines for the 2019 Schist Syrah were planted in 1999 on the Roundstone farm and originally used for the Mullineux estate Syrah, with the top 10 rows of the same block historically going into Eben Sadie’s famed Columella red blend. While there is irrigation available, the vineyard is now fully dry farmed. I always talk about this wine as being the consumers’ ‘darling wine’ in the single terroir range with seductive, alluring aromatics of pomegranate, blood orange, red currant, Earl Grey tea and crushed slate minerality nuances. Always supremely elegant and approachable, the 2019 shows a truly magical balance of concentrated, textural red and black fruit intensity together with sleek fresh acids and incredibly tight knit, polished, fine-grained tannins. This is an unbelievably complete wine that slowly but surely seduces you sip by sip. Tasted over two days, my impressions of this wine simply grew ever larger the longer the bottle was open. The novice fine wine drinker will love the Schist 2019 (as usual) while the discerning collector will perhaps acquire a new appreciation for this icon Swartland Syrah. (2,700 bottles produced. The only wine bottled every year since 2010.)Inc. VAT£860.47 -
(12x75cl) 2021
Tim Atkin MW (97)
This dryland vineyard on the Mullineux' Roundstone property is one of the world's great Syrah sites, yielding tiny bunches of concentrated grapes. Intensely perfumed and alluring, the resulting wine has notes of lavender and wild thyme, fine, granular tannins and layers of red berries, liquorice and sweet kitchen spices.Inc. VAT£1,213.27 -
(1x75cl) 2021Tim Atkin MW (97)
This dryland vineyard on the Mullineux' Roundstone property is one of the world's great Syrah sites, yielding tiny bunches of concentrated grapes. Intensely perfumed and alluring, the resulting wine has notes of lavender and wild thyme, fine, granular tannins and layers of red berries, liquorice and sweet kitchen spices.Inc. VAT£123.72 -
(12x75cl) 2022Tim Atkin MW (97)
Generally my favourite of the three soil-specific Syrahs, this comes from a 2.3-hectare site that was planted in 1998. Showing the perfume and texture of a great Côte Rôtie, it has fynbos, thyme and tapenade aromas, lots of energy and focus, stylish 50% new oak, granular tannins and wafts of violet and rose petal. Chris and Andrea Mullineux at their wonderful best.Inc. VAT£1,213.27 -
(1x75cl) 2022Tim Atkin MW (97)
Generally my favourite of the three soil-specific Syrahs, this comes from a 2.3-hectare site that was planted in 1998. Showing the perfume and texture of a great Côte Rôtie, it has fynbos, thyme and tapenade aromas, lots of energy and focus, stylish 50% new oak, granular tannins and wafts of violet and rose petal. Chris and Andrea Mullineux at their wonderful best.Inc. VAT£123.86 -
(6x75cl) 2022Tim Atkin MW (97)
Generally my favourite of the three soil-specific Syrahs, this comes from a 2.3-hectare site that was planted in 1998. Showing the perfume and texture of a great Côte Rôtie, it has fynbos, thyme and tapenade aromas, lots of energy and focus, stylish 50% new oak, granular tannins and wafts of violet and rose petal. Chris and Andrea Mullineux at their wonderful best.Inc. VAT£563.15 -
(6x75cl) 2023Tim Atkin MW (97)
Invariably the most perfumed of Chris and Andrea Mullineux's three site-focused Syrahs, this tastes like a wine that was influenced by the Domaine Jamet's Côte Rôties, all pepper, rose petal and fennel on the nose, graceful, bejewelled tannins, subtle wood and a core of wild strawberry and tobacco leaf. The best of the winery’s soil-specific reds.Inc. VAT£563.15 -
Tim Atkin MW (93)
One of my "go to" wines when I see it on a restaurant wine list, this intensely perfumed Syrah comes from seven vineyards, mostly on schist soils. Made with 90% whole bunches, it has more tannin than you think at first, layers of spice, violet and blackberry fruit and a refreshing tang.Inc. VAT£161.98 -
(12x75cl) 2022Wine Advocate (94)
The Mullineux 2022 Swartland Syrah comes from a site with quartz formations over schist soils. Quartz tends to erode at a different pace, leaving quartz stones on the surface that reflect light but do not reflect heat. This leads to optimal ripening, with soft cherry and blackberry flavors followed by lightly toasted spice. There is a ferrous note to the wine followed by fine, satiny tannins that have a certain lusciousness about them. The wine sees 80% whole-cluster fruit and is fermented in upright wooden vats. Andrea Mullineux says she is looking for the silky tannins that are specific to the Swartland. "Those tannins are a real fingerprint of the region," she says.Inc. VAT£445.61
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(6x75cl) 2019
Tim Atkin MW (95)
Chenin Blanc is the marquee variety here, with support from 26% Clairette Blanche, Grenache Blanc, Viognier, Semillon Gris, Viura and Verdelho, most of which is sourced from 37 to 70-year-old vines. Lemon, lime and wet stone flavours with some phenolic grip and remarkable palate length.In Bond£239.00 -
(12x75cl) 2023
Wine Advocate (93)
This is a blend of old-vine Chenin Blanc, Clairette Blanche, Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Semillon Gris. The Mullineux 2023 Swartland Old Vines White gives you a taste of South African winemaking excellence at a very interesting price. The vines are planted on granite soils with a beautiful layer of clay five meters down "that acts like a sponge," Andrea Mullineax tells me. This helps to concentrate and enrich flavors of preserved lemon, saffron and pastry cream filling. With each variety coming to ripeness at a different time, the grapes are whole-bunch pressed and not co-fermented. The Chenin Blanc, from dry-land bush vines, plays an important role in determining the lasting texture of the wine. It matures in foudre and some barrique, with 10% new oak.In Bond£267.00 -
Wine Advocate (93)
This is a blend of old-vine Chenin Blanc, Clairette Blanche, Grenache Blanc, Viognier and Semillon Gris. The Mullineux 2023 Swartland Old Vines White gives you a taste of South African winemaking excellence at a very interesting price. The vines are planted on granite soils with a beautiful layer of clay five meters down "that acts like a sponge," Andrea Mullineax tells me. This helps to concentrate and enrich flavors of preserved lemon, saffron and pastry cream filling. With each variety coming to ripeness at a different time, the grapes are whole-bunch pressed and not co-fermented. The Chenin Blanc, from dry-land bush vines, plays an important role in determining the lasting texture of the wine. It matures in foudre and some barrique, with 10% new oak.In Bond£160.00 -
(1x75cl) 2021
Vinous (93)
The 2021 Chenin Blanc Schist come from the Roundstone Estate on rocky, tile-like stones that are less water retentive and produce more compact vines with smaller bunches and extra structure. It has a more austere bouquet than the Granite, slate-like and earthier by comparison. The palate is taut and saline on the entry, quite strict with a little more nerve than the Granite, pointed towards the finish with a tingle of stem ginger on the aftertaste. This will require a little more bottle age. Very fine.In Bond£84.00 -
(1x75cl) 2022In Bond£100.00
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(12x75cl) 2023
Wine Advocate (96)
With this wine, we return to a mineral profile that is not unlike the Granite Chenin Blanc. However, the Mullineux 2023 Swartland Schist Chenin Blanc is slightly more ample and layered in terms of mouthfeel. Water does not penetrate as deeply on schist soils as it does granite, and the fruit is a little richer and more concentrated as a result. Water tends to run off easily, and the plant root systems remain shallow and produce smaller clusters, a less vigorous canopy and berries with thick skins (with more sunlight reaching the clusters through the leaves). This wine starts off with an incredibly citrusy feel, and yet it also delivers cool-climate Chenin Blanc aromas of green apple and honeysuckle. This wine is built to last, and it's no wonder it was served last in our tasting of the three single-vineyard Chenin Blancs. I would bet on the longest drinking window for this bottle. Those complex fruit flavors still need to flesh out.In Bond£696.00 -
(1x75cl) 2023
Wine Advocate (96)
With this wine, we return to a mineral profile that is not unlike the Granite Chenin Blanc. However, the Mullineux 2023 Swartland Schist Chenin Blanc is slightly more ample and layered in terms of mouthfeel. Water does not penetrate as deeply on schist soils as it does granite, and the fruit is a little richer and more concentrated as a result. Water tends to run off easily, and the plant root systems remain shallow and produce smaller clusters, a less vigorous canopy and berries with thick skins (with more sunlight reaching the clusters through the leaves). This wine starts off with an incredibly citrusy feel, and yet it also delivers cool-climate Chenin Blanc aromas of green apple and honeysuckle. This wine is built to last, and it's no wonder it was served last in our tasting of the three single-vineyard Chenin Blancs. I would bet on the longest drinking window for this bottle. Those complex fruit flavors still need to flesh out.In Bond£100.00 -
(6x75cl) 2023
Wine Advocate (96)
With this wine, we return to a mineral profile that is not unlike the Granite Chenin Blanc. However, the Mullineux 2023 Swartland Schist Chenin Blanc is slightly more ample and layered in terms of mouthfeel. Water does not penetrate as deeply on schist soils as it does granite, and the fruit is a little richer and more concentrated as a result. Water tends to run off easily, and the plant root systems remain shallow and produce smaller clusters, a less vigorous canopy and berries with thick skins (with more sunlight reaching the clusters through the leaves). This wine starts off with an incredibly citrusy feel, and yet it also delivers cool-climate Chenin Blanc aromas of green apple and honeysuckle. This wine is built to last, and it's no wonder it was served last in our tasting of the three single-vineyard Chenin Blancs. I would bet on the longest drinking window for this bottle. Those complex fruit flavors still need to flesh out.In Bond£320.00 -
Vinous - Neal Martin (97)
The 2015 Syrah Schist has a wonderful, nuanced, complex bouquet that I would happily place in any lineup of top Syrahs from the Rhône. So nuanced, so mineral and delineated, this just blossoms in the glass. The palate is beautifully balanced with fine tannins, judiciously spiced with white pepper and sage. Highly complex, terroir-driven and delicious, this is a Syrah that delivers on all fronts at 10 years of age. It easily surpasses the bottle drunk just after bottling. World. Class. Syrah. Tasted blind at the 10-Year-On horizontal in London.In Bond£130.00 -
Tim Atkin MW (95)
The Schist Syrah is sourced from the extensive Roundstone property and, like its stablemates Granite and Iron, is fermented with whole bunches and aged in one third-new oak. Rich, savoury and concentrated, but with considerable underlying finesse, rose petal notes and refreshing, palate-cleansing acidity. 2021-30In Bond£390.00 -
Tim Atkin MW (97)
My pick of the three top Mullineux Syrahs in 2018, this world-class red is the most perfumed and alluring of the trio right now. Combining fruit from the Kasteelberg and Roundstone, this has violet and lavender aromas, some sap and grip from 100% whole bunches, incredible focus and grip and a plush, seductive mid palate.In Bond£375.00 -
(12x75cl) 2019
Greg Sherwood MW (97)
The vines for the 2019 Schist Syrah were planted in 1999 on the Roundstone farm and originally used for the Mullineux estate Syrah, with the top 10 rows of the same block historically going into Eben Sadie’s famed Columella red blend. While there is irrigation available, the vineyard is now fully dry farmed. I always talk about this wine as being the consumers’ ‘darling wine’ in the single terroir range with seductive, alluring aromatics of pomegranate, blood orange, red currant, Earl Grey tea and crushed slate minerality nuances. Always supremely elegant and approachable, the 2019 shows a truly magical balance of concentrated, textural red and black fruit intensity together with sleek fresh acids and incredibly tight knit, polished, fine-grained tannins. This is an unbelievably complete wine that slowly but surely seduces you sip by sip. Tasted over two days, my impressions of this wine simply grew ever larger the longer the bottle was open. The novice fine wine drinker will love the Schist 2019 (as usual) while the discerning collector will perhaps acquire a new appreciation for this icon Swartland Syrah. (2,700 bottles produced. The only wine bottled every year since 2010.)In Bond£685.00 -
(12x75cl) 2021
Tim Atkin MW (97)
This dryland vineyard on the Mullineux' Roundstone property is one of the world's great Syrah sites, yielding tiny bunches of concentrated grapes. Intensely perfumed and alluring, the resulting wine has notes of lavender and wild thyme, fine, granular tannins and layers of red berries, liquorice and sweet kitchen spices.In Bond£979.00 -
(1x75cl) 2021
Tim Atkin MW (97)
This dryland vineyard on the Mullineux' Roundstone property is one of the world's great Syrah sites, yielding tiny bunches of concentrated grapes. Intensely perfumed and alluring, the resulting wine has notes of lavender and wild thyme, fine, granular tannins and layers of red berries, liquorice and sweet kitchen spices.In Bond£100.00 -
(12x75cl) 2022
Tim Atkin MW (97)
Generally my favourite of the three soil-specific Syrahs, this comes from a 2.3-hectare site that was planted in 1998. Showing the perfume and texture of a great Côte Rôtie, it has fynbos, thyme and tapenade aromas, lots of energy and focus, stylish 50% new oak, granular tannins and wafts of violet and rose petal. Chris and Andrea Mullineux at their wonderful best.In Bond£979.00 -
(1x75cl) 2022
Tim Atkin MW (97)
Generally my favourite of the three soil-specific Syrahs, this comes from a 2.3-hectare site that was planted in 1998. Showing the perfume and texture of a great Côte Rôtie, it has fynbos, thyme and tapenade aromas, lots of energy and focus, stylish 50% new oak, granular tannins and wafts of violet and rose petal. Chris and Andrea Mullineux at their wonderful best.In Bond£100.00 -
(6x75cl) 2022
Tim Atkin MW (97)
Generally my favourite of the three soil-specific Syrahs, this comes from a 2.3-hectare site that was planted in 1998. Showing the perfume and texture of a great Côte Rôtie, it has fynbos, thyme and tapenade aromas, lots of energy and focus, stylish 50% new oak, granular tannins and wafts of violet and rose petal. Chris and Andrea Mullineux at their wonderful best.In Bond£450.00 -
(6x75cl) 2023
Tim Atkin MW (97)
Invariably the most perfumed of Chris and Andrea Mullineux's three site-focused Syrahs, this tastes like a wine that was influenced by the Domaine Jamet's Côte Rôties, all pepper, rose petal and fennel on the nose, graceful, bejewelled tannins, subtle wood and a core of wild strawberry and tobacco leaf. The best of the winery’s soil-specific reds.In Bond£450.00 -
Tim Atkin MW (93)
One of my "go to" wines when I see it on a restaurant wine list, this intensely perfumed Syrah comes from seven vineyards, mostly on schist soils. Made with 90% whole bunches, it has more tannin than you think at first, layers of spice, violet and blackberry fruit and a refreshing tang.In Bond£115.00 -
(12x75cl) 2022
Wine Advocate (94)
The Mullineux 2022 Swartland Syrah comes from a site with quartz formations over schist soils. Quartz tends to erode at a different pace, leaving quartz stones on the surface that reflect light but do not reflect heat. This leads to optimal ripening, with soft cherry and blackberry flavors followed by lightly toasted spice. There is a ferrous note to the wine followed by fine, satiny tannins that have a certain lusciousness about them. The wine sees 80% whole-cluster fruit and is fermented in upright wooden vats. Andrea Mullineux says she is looking for the silky tannins that are specific to the Swartland. "Those tannins are a real fingerprint of the region," she says.In Bond£330.00
