Mullineux Family Wines Old Vines White Blend 2021
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Robert
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Pale straw in color, this wine has a nose of ripe, green citrus fruit and Christmas spices. The palate is fresh and richly textured, with notes of ripe pears, almonds and peaches, and a clove-like finish.
Blend: 62% Chenin Blanc, 10% Clairette Blanche, 9% Viognier, 7% Grenache Blanc, 6% Semillon Gris, 6% Verdelho
Professional Ratings
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Vinous
The 2021 Old Vines White comes from vines up to 70-years old built around Chenin Blanc, 62% in this vintage, barrel fermented in 500-litre barrels and a couple of foudres. This has a lovely bouquet with dried honey, white flowers, honeysuckle and light grilled walnut aromas. The palate is very well balanced with a fine bead of acidity, gorgeous texture with impressive tension on the finish. This is an outstanding Old Vine White that will age with style.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Composed of a blend of 62% Chenin Blanc, 10% Clairette Blanche, 9% Viognier, 7% Grenache Blanc, 6% Sémillon and 6% Verdelho, the 2021 Old Vine White is bright, fresh and focused with succulent stonefruit aromas that sway with a brilliant floral essence and sweet citrus tone. Medium to full-bodied, the mouthfeel is textural and refined with a delightful crunchy minerality and exuberance that displays power and finesse. There is a lovely flutter of oak spice across the long and subtly spiced finish. Rating: 91+
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Wine & Spirits
This wine, a blend of 62 percent chenin blanc with five other Mediterranean white varieties, spent eleven months in French oak (20 percent new), which only made it more of a heavyweight. The winemaking dominates the middle of the wine with coconut and butter-poached apple flavors, but one can follow the through line of freshening acidity from start to finish, when the juice’s apple-cider brightness outlasts the cellar’s adornments.
Other Vintages
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We are a small, highly focused Family winery based in the village of Riebeek Kasteel producing a select Family of hand-crafted wines from the granite and shale based terroirs of the Swartland Region of South Africa.
The Swartland is a beautiful and wild place. The landscape is a series of rolling hills, with a few significant outcrops of rock that form the Paardeberg, Riebeek Kasteel and Piketberg Mountains. It is not an easy place to establish vines, and is a region that has as much of an influence on the vineyards and people who farm there as the people have on the land itself. This brings to mind what film director David von Ancken has to say about the old American West: "The primal, universal power of the landscape strips away everything but the truth of men's souls." In much the same way, we feel the Swartland landscape bares the souls of grape vines, and in those varieties that can take the ruggedness, true personality of site is revealed.
With hundreds of white grape varieties to choose from, winemakers have the freedom to create a virtually endless assortment of blended white wines. In many European regions, strict laws are in place determining the set of varieties that may be used in white wine blends, but in the New World, experimentation is permitted and encouraged. Blending can be utilized to enhance balance or create complexity, lending different layers of flavors and aromas. For example, a variety that creates a soft and full-bodied white wine blend, like Chardonnay, would do well combined with one that is more fragrant and naturally high in acidity. Sometimes small amounts of a particular variety are added to boost color or aromatics. Blending can take place before or after fermentation, with the latter, more popular option giving more control to the winemaker over the final qualities of the wine.
Literally meaning "the black land," Swartland takes its name from the endangered, indigenous "renosterbos" (translating to rhino bush), which used to be plentiful enough to turn the entire landscape a dark color certain during times of year. The district, attracting some of the most adventurous and least interventionist winemakers, excels in robust and full-bodied reds as well as quality fortified wines.