How some of the Mullineux 2015s are ageing
By Christian Eedes, 27 February 2025
-
Share:
2
Mullineux, a producer that deliberately avoids competitions which is a choice entirely their prerogative, did not submit wines for the recent 10-Year-Old Wine Report tasting. How might they have fared? Tasting notes and ratings for three wines in their portfolio from that vintage as follows:
Mullineux Old Vines 2015
Original rating: 93 – April 2017.
73% Chenin Blanc, 13% Clairette Blanche, 7% Viognier and 7% Semillon Gris. Little signs of advancement on the nose – pear, peach, citrus, fynbos, earth, spice and a hint of waxiness. The palate shows pure fruit and lively acidity before a dry finish. Time in bottle has only bought extra nuance. Hangs together well as a blend.
CE’s rating: 94/100.
Mullineux Granite Chenin Blanc 2015
Original rating: 91 – August 2016.
Lanonlin, quince, citrus and peach on the nose while the palate shows dense fruit and a seemingly big acidity, the finish savoury. Powerful and full of flavour – this has certainly gained in texture and breadth since release and is probably now at its peak.
CE’s rating: 93/100.
Mullineux Syrah 2015
Original rating: 91 – September 2017.
The nose shows red berries, rose, fynbos and spice plus some caramelisation that comes with development. Light bodied with fresh acidity and powdery tannins. Drink up.
CE’s rating: 89/100.
Check out our South African wine ratings database.
-
Share:
Wilhelm | 27 February 2025
The 89 on the Syrah together with the low scores on the Syrah from the report begs the question of local Syrahs ability to age. @Christian, perhaps its worth to open up a few of the more esteemed wines (Porseleinberg, Rall Ava, Epilogue, etc) from 2015 to see how they are doing?
Christian Eedes | 27 February 2025
Hi Wilhelm, Unfortunately, the cellar at Winemag HQ is not stuffed with examples from the 2015 vintage of the “more esteemed” Syrah labels. How should the age-worthiness of Syrah be regarded? I would make the following observatons: 1) the modern Syrah project is fairly young so however good the wines that were made a decade ago, they are probably even better in terms of structural integrity now; 2) Syrah tends to be so seductive in its youth, why wait to drink them? and 3) the prestige bottlings do seem to age that much better ( I scored the Schist 2015 from Mullineux 98 as part of a vertical tasting of all vintages in 2023 having originally given it 96 on release in 2017) but you pay accordingly…