By STAFFORD THOMAS | www.businesslive.co.za
This winemaker has been recognised internationally for pushing boundaries in the Western Cape’s harsh Swartland region
Andrea Mullineux has been named 2016 Winemaker of the Year by Wine Enthusiast, a US publication with a worldwide readership of 800,000.
“When I heard I had won I had no idea I had even been nominated,” she says.
She is the first SA winemaker and the third woman to have won in 17 years.
“The award is based on the history of our wines and our contribution to the industry,” says Mullineux modestly. Wine Enthusiast puts it far more strongly, praising her for challenging “conventional wisdom” and “rejuvenating the reputation of a centuries-old winemaking region”.
That region is the Swartland, north of Cape Town. Prone to climatic extremes, it is where Mullineux and her husband Chris, an accountant and viticulturist, put down roots when they bought Roundstone Farm in 2013. Backing them in their venture, Mullineux & Leeu Family Wines, is Indian business tycoon Analjit Singh.
She is the first SA winemaker and the third woman to have won in 17 years.
Roundstone Farm was a giant leap for the couple, who had set up their own winery on a leased Swartland vineyard just six years earlier. But they already have 17 five-star ratings from Platter’s SA Wine Guide. Mullineux says her passion for wine began at the dinner table of her family’s home in Woodside, a town on the outskirts of San Francisco. It was a passion that led her to obtain a viticulture and oenology degree from the University of California, Davis in 2002.
She honed her skills in California’s wine heartland, the Napa Valley, where she chalked up five harvests. In 2004 she did a stint at Waterford Estate near Stellenbosch.
The same year found her in Châteauneuf in France’s Rhône Valley, where she was to gain more than experience. A chance meeting at a wine festival in Champagne brought her and future husband, SA-born Chris, together for the first time.
They soon found themselves in SA, making wine from Swartland grapes.
“The Swartland’s harsh climate gives its wines a lot of character,” says Mullineux. The region is also home to some of SA’s oldest vines.
“We work with vines up to 80 years old,” says Mullineux. “Old vines have shown they can survive severe droughts without irrigation. They represent farming as sustainable as you can get.”
Old vines also offer winemakers what young vines can’t: consistent quality. This is driving big foreign demand for Mullineux wines. “We export 75% of our wine to 26 countries,” says Mullineux.
