Mullineux Wines run by Chris and Andrea Mullineux is one of the most respected quality producers in South Africa as further evidenced by their recent inclusion in the Top 5 Wineries of South Africa poll conducted by Winemag.co.za. With their Signature red and white range only released onto the market as recently as 2008, and their Single Terroir Series wines first released in 2010, they have wasted little time in elevating their wines to some of the most sought-after in the Swartland and the Western Cape.

With Andrea Mullineux in London recently, I caught up with her over lunch to taste what she considers are her finest expressions of Mullineux Syrahs to date. With the Swartland experiencing a very long, cool, atypical vintage, I was intrigued to see what all the hype was about.

Mullineux Single Terroir Syrah 2021s:

Mullineux Granite Jakkalsfontein Syrah 2021, 13.5% Abv.

2.2g/l RS | 5.7g/l TA | 3.70pH

Beautifully taut and tight knit with pinpoint aromatics of crushed granite, gravel, delicate violet and lily perfume, juniper berries and subtle broody black berry fruit notes. The minerality and sappy herbal spices bristle in the glass with an incredibly fine-grained palate with delicately drying, chalky, satin textured tannins that will ultimately come to define this incredible vintage and its astounding weightless focus, dry extract power, cool freshness and seductive finesse. This is a truly exceptional, awe inspiring creation that pushes new quality boundaries for tannin management and palate precision. Drink from 2024 to 2044+.

(Wine Safari Score: 98/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Mullineux Schist Roundstone Syrah 2021, 13.5% Abv.

2.5g/l RS | 5.5g/l TA | 3.78pH

This beautiful Schist vintage is a real stunner, a gorgeous head turner that oozes quality, confidence and class. Deep, dark and multi-layered, the aromatics boasts complex notes of pressed pink blossoms, Parma violet candies, creme de cassis and saline black berry with delicate notes of cigar ash, graphite, and a concertinaed liquid mineral spice. Fabulously deep, tightly wound, and tight knit at its core but still incredibly, displays its own stylish opulence, expressive character and generosity without compromising the delicately dry tannin extract intensity on the finish. A beautifully spellbinding, seductive expression of Syrah that is sure to take on new dimensions of textural and flavour complexity with extra time in bottle. Drink from 2024 to 2040+.

(Wine Safari Score: 97/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

Mullineux Iron Kasteelsig Syrah 2021, 13.5% Abv.

1.8g/l RS | 5.5g/l TA | 3.80pH

Another incredibly intense, densely textured, finely crafted wine displaying a uniquely individual terroir personality of damp earth and iron from the koffeeklip soils, black liquorice and black olive tapenade with saline cassis and black berry, graphite and oyster shell nuances. The beauty and precision on the palate is spectacular and this is where you really get to witness the compact, dry extract density of the Iron vineyard combined with the cool, intense, highly finessed tannin structure of the 2021 vintage. This is a simply sublime composition of classical terroir-driven Syrah that really stops you in your tracts with its utter majesty and poise. Possibly the finest Iron Syrah produced since 2010. Drink from 2024 until 2044+.

(Wine Safari Score: 98/100 Greg Sherwood MW)

The Mullineux wines are imported into the UK by Liberty Wines and available retail from South African fine wine specialist Museum Wines.