Andrea and Chris Mullineux’s experience with Swartland fruit convinced them to move in 2007 to a region still not widely known for excellence, to establish their own label, Mullineux and Leeu Family Wines. With the 2008 Syrah, White Blend and Straw Wine (the last of those winning the pair the first of an almost uncountable number of five-star ratings) they inaugurated a massive contribution to SA wine. They established a new centre for the Swartland Revolution, away from Paardeberg, by being based in Riebeek-Kasteel, where after a few vintages elsewhere they established a small cellar in 2010.
The Mullineux aim to reflect the granite, schist and iron soils of the Swartland, using shiraz and chenin as the lens in the varietal wines, and crucial to the blends, has not wavered in all the growth and development since.
A partnership with Indian business Analjit Singh came a decade later, followed by the purchase of Roundstone farm on the Kasteelberg, which they developed splendidly over succeeding years.
With Andrea now chiefly responsible for vineyards as well as winemaking, they have planted, for example, rare blocks of assyrtiko and semillon gris, and are in the third year of ‘regenerative organic conversion’. The internationally applauded array of wines has made Mullineux and Leeu Family Wines the Platter guide’s best-performing winery five times.
