Mullineux Kloof Street Wines

The Swartland wine region has been in existence for many years and steadily produces good, although often fuller bodied, wines. The area is large and therefore warrants the division of two wards, namely Malmesbury and Riebeekberg, the latter seeing a rediscovery and welcoming of new and innovative wine makers who are stirring the local wine industry with their excellent highly acclaimed wines! This reappraisal has resulted in a yearly event dubbed “The Swartland Revolution” where hundreds of wine enthusiasts gather in the town of Riebeek West for a weekend of lectures, wine tastings and good local food.

Chris and Andrea Mullineux

Chris and Andrea Mullineux of Mullineux Family Wines are at the forefront of this revolution and re-evaluation of the Swartland region. Andrea grew up in San Francisco and it was here that her passion for wine started. After completing her degree in Viticulture and Oenology at the University of California, she worked at various wineries in the Napa Valley not far from her home town. Keen to learn more she left her native country and travelled to the Cape where she did a stint at Waterford winery in Stellenbosch before heading to France to work at Mont Redon in Chateauneuf-du-Pape. It was while in France she met Chris at a Champagne Festival! Chris is a local lad, born in Cape Town and his introduction to the world of wine was while studying accountancy at the University of Stellenbosch. Completing his accounting degree he went on to do a second degree in winemaking. Chris went on to work at a boutique winery in Tulbagh and later did some stints in France and California. Chris encouraged Andrea to come back to the Cape and they later married and settled down in Riebeek Kasteel where they started Mullineux Family Wines. Since bottling their first wines in 2008 their wines have achieved almost instant success and in the 2012 John Platter guide 3 of their 5 wines received 5 stars with the other 2 a commendable 4 stars!

Our wine choice for this week are Chris and Andrea’s delicious easy drinking duo called Kloof Street after the name of the street where their winery is situated in Riebeek Kasteel. The white is made from selected Chenin Blanc grapes from three different vineyards in the Swartland and mostly from 40 year old bush vines. The wine is pale straw in colour with fresh apply/ peach aromas leading to a ripe and rich savoury spicy palate with minerally texture which begs it to be enjoyed with food!

The red is a happy mix of Southern Rhone varieties (73% Syrah, 12% Mourvedre, 8% Cinsault, 4% Carignan and 2% Grenache) sourced from six vineyards where the vines range from being 12 to 40 years old. After fermentation the wine was matured in 3rd and 4th fill barrels for 11 months prior to bottling. Velvety red colour with enticing aromas of mulberry fruit guiding you to the spicy savoury palate packed with juicy black fruit flavour balanced with mineral finesse.

Buy at Wine Concepts now:
Kloof Street Chenin Blanc 2009 R67.50
Kloof Street Swartland Rouge 2009 R77.50

HOT OFFER!!

It doesn’t happen often that one winery achieve 3 Platter’s 5 star wines in one year. As you can imagine these wines started selling extremely well after the announcement and also over the Christmas period. So much that the white blend is now completely sold out. There is only one way of getting your hands on this selection and that is to buy the very exclusive collection box. Wine Concepts still have some of these collection boxes available at R1050 per box.