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Jancis Rates our new releases
0 Comments | Posted by chris in Reviews & Press, Uncategorized
Following the great press we recently received in Decanter magazine, some more good news today from the UK on our new releases, this time from Jancis Robinson on her Purple Pages. She recently included our 2008 White as one of her few South African wines in her list of Summer Favorites, and the tasting notes on our new releases are unfortunately subscriber only, so we’re posting the notes here:
Jancis Robinson's Purple Pages
MULLINEUX SYRAH 2008 SWARTLAND
This has come on beautifully since I first tasted it last November. Lots of north Rhône subtlety and refreshment factor. Great to see something buck the local trend and turn out something, in the first vintage, with real finesse. 17/20
WHITE BLEND 2009 SWARTLAND (60% Chenin Blanc, 10% Clairette Blanche, 10% Roussanne, 10% Viognier, 10% Grenache Blanc).
Stunningly refined and appealing for those of who like dry whites to taste as though they have some of the bedrock (shale in this case) soaking in the wine glass. Beautifully judged with notes of jasmine, lemon peel as well as all that minerality. Lovely now but there is so much tucked in there that I suspect it will develop beautifully in bottle. A great effort for a second vintage. 17,5/20
STRAW WINE 2009 SWARTLAND
Pale coppery colour and awfully viscous but thanks to the acidity of Chenin Blanc, this from a single parcel of nearly 30 year-old vines, this has great refreshment value too. Lovely balance and delightfully approachable already. This was probably very difficult to make. 18/20
South Africa woke up to one of our biggest ever hangovers yesterday (spare a thought for how most Spanish must have felt though!), with the 2010 World Cup successfully completed, and the country having to go back to real life. It almost feels like the depression that hits winemakers at end of harvest, with most of the country not knowing what to do with ourselves!
The Italy vs Paraguay Match we Attended in Cape Town, 2010
Though the Swartland did not experience significantly more tourists during the World Cup, we have certainly benefitted from the added attention that hosting the event has brought to South Africa, and we in the Swartland and at Mullineux Wines have been fortunate with some great coverage in international media, and added business opportunities.
Lets hope we can make the most of it and keep up the momentum!
Back home the art exhibition we hosted in our cellar over the weekend went very well… here are a couple of pics:
Weekend Exhibition
But Is it Art?
A good crowd attended, and was treated to some interesting Performances!
Looking to the next couple of weeks… big news is going to be the launch of our new range of wines called Kloof Street… watch this space!!!
There’s a flurry of activity in our cellar today as a group of local artists prepare for an exhibition tomorrow, the 10th July. If you are in the area pop in to have a look, and a glass of Mullineux Wine! The exhibition starts at 6pm.
The works include paintings, sculptures, drawings and performance art, and artists are Tamlin Blake, Jacques Coetzer, Lean Coetzer, Loni Drager, Christiaan Conradie, Greta McMahon, Phillipe Kayumba, and Maurice Mbikayi.
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FT, Malo & Stephane
0 Comments | Posted by chris in Hospice du Rhone, Mullineux Wines, White Blends
Another nice mention on our wines over the weekend, this time by Jancis Robinson as one of her sugestions for Summer drinking in the Northern Hemisphere, in the Financial Times. Here’s her comment:
Mullineux White 2008 Swartland
Super-talented new operation in South Africa makes the most of old bushvines in a recently revived region. Very complex blend for the money. Should age well.
FT Weekend - Food and Wine
This is interesting reading as tasting the wine recently we feel the 2008 White is possibly reaching a phase where it is settling down and tightening up, and does indeed look like it will age well. If you try a bottle we suggest decanting it, or drinking over a couple of days.
It also gives food for thought on our 2009 White which we are in the process of releasing. The ‘09 vintage of the wine only completed 50% of its malolactic fermentation, and as a result of the higher malic acid content tastes fresher and tighter, and almost more alive. It’s interesting to taste the two wines next to each other.
And, in a third related note, we had a bottle of 2008 Voignier de Rosine from Stephane Ogier over the weekend. Stephane was one of the speakers at this years Hospice du Rhone, and this was the first wine he presented in his seminar. If I remember correctly (we were a bit cloudy after the Margharitas he was buying us the night before…), he prefers not to allow his Viognier to go through malo, and this wine certainly benifits from the increased freshness. Maybe this is something we producers in the Swartland should look at…?
With amost 500 000 tourists in the Cape for the World Cup, we’ve just been told of a great review of South African wines and restaurants in the Winelands in the current BA inflight magazine, ‘Highflyer’. The article by Fiona Sims covers her visit to the Cape earlier this year together with celebrity Chef Angela Hartnett, and we have fond memories of taking them to dinner at Bar Bar Blacksheep.
BA Highlife
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Some positive press to go with our ‘09 Straw Wine & Bacon Chocolate tonight.
0 Comments | Posted by chris in Uncategorized
I must admit I was somewhat apprehensive when Andrea suggested trying some Bacon Chocolate with our ‘09 Straw Wine this evening. She’d picked up a couple of bars of this weird new chocolate on our trip to the USA, and couldn’t wait to pair it with some of our wine. I thought our Syrah would be a natural partner, but must confess that her instinct for dessert pairing was spot on!
'09 Straw Wine & Bacon Chocolate... whatever next?!
It actually reminded us of how well the Rocksalt Chocolate Fontant that Forti Mazzone at Ritrovo paired with our Straw Wine at a dinner last year. Some things just can’t be predicted… like the USA’s comeback against England last night.
On another note, we’re chuffed to read two positive pieces on our wines, both from the UK. The first is Tom Cannavan’s review of our wines. It was great to see Tom out at our winery earlier this year, and hopefully we meet up when we’re back in the UK later this year.
The second review comes from another person we really respect – Doug Wregg of Le Caves de Pyrene. If you are ever in London, have a slight interest in REAL wine, and have not visited Terroirs wine bar, you really should. We met up with Doug at Terroirs a few weeks ago to show him our new wines, and this is his review.
Terroirs warming up.
Afterwards we spent a few hours having dinner with good friends, and though we were somewhat daunted by the incredible wine list, pretty much everything we ordered (including Domaine Grammenon cuvee la Meme, Didier Barral Blanc and Dard et Ribo Crozes Hermitage) was lovely!
As the whole of South Africa is in the grip of World Cup fever, with FIFA’s 2010 Soccer World Cup starting tomorrow, it is good to hear that our country proudly won Bibendum’s World Cup of Wine last week. Okay, the tournament was a bit tongue-in-cheek, but fun news nevertheless!
Bibendum's World Cup
Seriously though, it seems our whole nation is together on this one, and very proud to be hosting the tournament in Africa for the first time. We returned yesterday from our lengthy visit to the Northern Hemisphere, and as we landed at the airport we were swept up by the emotion and excitement. We had several Mexican and English fans on our flight, and landed at the same time as the Italian National Team, so was an incredible amount of signing and shouting going on… and a couple of Vuvuzela’s too!
The inFamous Vuvuzela
Love them or hate them, we’re all going to have to live with these noisy cultural items over the next few weeks, and if you’re attending any of the matches we suggest you have a glass of wine or two before you go, and take some ear plugs with you; if you’re watching the matches on TV make sure you sit near to the remote with your finger on the volume button… and a glass of South African wine in your other hand!
We’re continuing our stay in California with a mix of welcome family time, marketing and winery visits.
This week we drove up to Napa and Sonoma to visit a few friends and new wineries. It is incredible what a vibrant, dynamic place the Californian wine industry is today. There is a serious amount of thought and innovation about, resulting in many unique and exciting wineries and wines entering the market.
As an example, yesterday we started the day with a visit to Ovid Winery in Napa. Firstly, this is not an easy place to visit, being at the upper end of the upper end of Napa’s new winery projects, and we’re thankful to friends Lilly and Jon Berlin of El Molino for arranging the visit (and thanks for a great stay guys!).
Ovid Cellar - How are those cement tanks!!!
The Ovid owners Mark Nelson and Dana Johnson have left absolutely no stone unturned in their quest to produce perfection from their mountainside vineyard, and I must say I came away very impressed by their low key attitude (no massive ego’s here as one might expect), the brilliance and simplicity of their cellar design, and of course the class and character of their wine.
Jz helping out at Ovid
Often modern day high-end Bordeaux blends tend to have so much polish and ripeness that they lack anything distinct or expressing their site, but Ovid is getting it right. After a cellar tour we tasted a couple of very interesting barrel samples, and then their 2006 Ovid, which had a wonderfully complex nose of spice, red fruit, rusted iron and earth, and though the palate is full, it is fresh and has great length and harmony. At $175 per bottle it’s certainly not a wine we’ll be buying a lot of, but we look forward to following their progress over the years.
2006 Ovid
We then drove over the mountains to what literally felt like the other side of the world… Forestville, Sonoma. This is right on the edge of Hillbilly territory, and quite a contrast from the posh end of Napa we’d just visited!
Arnot Roberts Syrah
We’d tasted the wines of Arnot Roberts and Wind Gap Wineries seperately at the Hospice du Rhone last week, and these were two of the most exciting wineries we’ve come across is several years. We then discovered the two wineries operate out of a shared historic building in that they’ve converted into a winery, and this resonated with our own cellar in Riebeek so we had to pay them a visit!
What makes these two projects so interesting and special (apart from the AWESOME wine) is the fact that they are at the leading edge of the move away from high alcohols in modern wine. Most of the wines from both wineries are below 13% alc, but what is important is they all manage to still have lovely concentration and richness, and not a hint of greenness. This is so important as many wineries that are currently moving away from super ripeness are producing wines that are thin, harsh and funky.
As one would expect though, Duncan and Nathan from Arnot Roberts, and Pax from Wind Gap work intuitively with their wines and do not follow any recipie. They have also learnt to tread gently (quite literally!) with their wines so as not to extract any roughness or greenness.
Andrea, jz & Pax
What is also interesting is they are using relatively high proportions of whole bunches/clusters in their red wines – counter-intuitive when picking “early”, as conventional wisdom tells you green stems will result in GREEN wines, but this is not the case! A sensitve approach with the right vineyards clearly has a special result. These wines might not be easy to find, but if you are able to lay your hands on any we urge you to try them out!
What a weekend!!!! We’ve just walked in from the 2010 Hospice du Rhone, and are still processing all we experienced over this, our 3rd trip to the annual Californian Rhone bonanza.
Welcome to HdR 2010 !!!
This year Andrea and I were joined by Marc Kent, David Trafford and Eben Sadie in presenting a seminar on the history and development of South African Syrah to a packed hall of 400 members of the wine trade. Our seminar went very well, with the two older wines (1986 Fairview Reserve Shiraz and the 1994 Stellenzicht Syrah) showing perfectly alongside the present day versions of the producers on stage.
South African Seminar
James Molesworth was a brilliant moderator, and the perfect person to lead the attendees through a lineup of wines that was completely new to most of the people in the Hall. We had many positive responses after the seminar, and are chuffed to have made the special effort to put the seminar together.
Preparing to present South Africa at HdR 2010
The rest of the weekend was a bit of a blur! As usual we started off with the Rhone ‘n Bowl, and this year we were pitted alongside a group of Frenchies (Yves Cuilleron, Yves Gangloff and Francois Villard) with James Molesworth as their Captain. James jokingly threatened to score our next wines the same as our bowling scores… Andrea and I were glad to come home with a score of 91, while Eben must be worried with his 64, and David Trafford thrilled with his 104!!! The bowling was followed by come crazy Karaoke, and then martinis and margaritas at Villa Creek thanks to Stephan Ogier (a theme replicated with increasing intensity the following evenings). It was a small struggle to get going in the mornings, but Margie’s Diner helped us along with some massive breakfasts!
The Life Saver - Breakfast at Margies Diner
Breakfast at Margie's with Edmund, Andrea, Chris, Marc, Eben, Peter and David
We left on Sunday morning and drove up north to San Francisco, but made a detour to visit our good friend Bibiana and the Pisoni’s at their wonderful mountain vineyards in the Santa Lucia Highlands. We’d met Jeff Pisoni at our first visit to the HdR in 2008, and it was great to catch up with him and his family again.
Visiting the Pisoni's
It is inspiring (and somewhat daunting) to meet young American’s who are the cutting edge of winemaking over here. They are making wines with increasing levels of elegance and freshness, but are managing to maintain good density and class. There are a couple of South African’s who are going to come home ready to pull their socks a bit higher!
More thoughts and pics to follow soon!
Andrea, Eben and the "Most Photographed Tree on Earth", the Lone Cypress at Pebble Beach, Carmel
