Mullineux Family Wines, Straw Wine, Swartland, South Africa, 2024 (375mL)

Overview of the Wine
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.

Vegan.

Winemakers
Andrea and Chris Mullineux

Grape / Blend
Chenin Blanc

Origin
Swartland, South Africa

Winemaker's Tasting Notes
The 2024 Mullineux Straw Wine has a beautiful luminous golden colour. The exceptionally well-balanced acidity and attractive viscosity of this vin de paille-style wine is highlighted on the palate. Grown in the ancient granite soils of the Paardeberg, it has a very distinct flavour profile reminding one of Mebos, with an intense mouthfeel like that of silky lemon meringue pie. The extraordinarily fresh and lingering finish, culminating from the old vines of the Swartland, which also allow dappled sunlight to penetrate the canopies of the bush-vines and develop the stone fruit aromas of this wine. Best served chilled at 8 to 10 °C with savoury-lead or sweet desserts or a combination of hard cheeses. This is a vegan friendly wine.

97 Points - Vinous 
The 2024 Straw Wine comes from deep, decomposed granite soils in Paardeberg that offer the highest natural malic acid to counter the concentration. The fruit is dried off the vine for four weeks, with ten months' fermentation before it naturally comes to a halt. It has extraordinarily pure acacia honey, orange pith and tangerine scents that are beautifully defined. The palate has stunning delineation, a razor-sharp line of acidity and ample weight, but it is not cloying in any way. The finish feels quite stem ginger, leaving the mouth tingling afterwards. Brilliant. 

95 Points - James Suckling
Honey, golden raisins, figs, candied oranges, dried pineapples and lemonade on the nose of this concentrated dessert wine. So much sweet, dried-fruit goodness packed in, beautifully balanced by sharp acidity. Long and intense. From chenin blanc grapes grown on granite soil, dried for four weeks in the shade. Drink or hold.

Product size: 375ml