2024 Mullineux Chenin Blanc Schist
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Tasting notes
Among the single-soil Chenin Blancs made at Mullineux, the 2024 Swartland Schist Chenin Blanc offers special firmness and sharpness, with minty apple, lemon zest, chamomile and firm mineral grip. This wine delivers heightened intensity here due to small berries and a high skin-to-juice ratio from highly structured schist soils. These light reflective Swartland slopes push the wine toward greater concentration and a darker golden hue while maintaining freshness. This wine has runway to age.
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Neal Martin
Monica Larner, Wine Advocate
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The 2024 Chenin Blanc Schist comes from the Roundstone Estate, where the Mullineuxs call "home," and where the schist soils have varying friability. Roots can penetrate, but due to the angular structure of the soils, the water penetrates less deeply and likewise, the roots and the skin-to-juice ratio will be higher. That explains the aromatics, which are very phenolic, with beeswax, white linen, lemon verbena and dried peach skin - just wonderful. The palate has an arresting tactile sensation that lacquers the mouth, a keen line of acidity, the most substance of the three Chenins, with a long, lightly spiced finish. Outstanding.
About the producer
Chris and Andrea Mullineux were at the forefront of South Africa’s new-wave movement and are now one of the country’s most established names. Alongside the Swartland project that made their name, they make wines in Franschhoek under the Leeu Passant name – a tribute to South Africa’s vinous past.