Deciding on a whim – as usual – to play wine tourist, I turned left before Franschhoek town for a visit to Leeu Passant, home of the wines originating from the joint-venture between Andrea and Chris Mullineux and Indian businessman Analjit Singh. Here both the ranges of Mullineux and Leeu Passant are presented in the Wine Studio, a stylish tasting-venue, uncluttered and free of bling and ostentatious, unnecessary wall adornments, leaving one to focus on what the space is there for: the wines. And outside the, gardens and landscaping is fabulous.
I have long been an admirer and admitted fan of these wines, having been brought to various evocative stages of introspection by the magnificent Leeu Passant Stellenbosch Chardonnay, while the Stellenbosch Cabernet Sauvignon underscores the now home-driven fact that the environs of Stellenbosch were mapped out by the man above to plant Cabernet Sauvignon.
Of course, there is a Cinsault and a red blend with Cinsault, and a line-up of these splendid wines, showing a seamless blend of sense of place and a masterly hand in the cellar, can be quite overwhelming in their collective beauty. For me, going through this line-up is akin to listening to Steely Dan’s seminal album, Gaucho, and trying to determine which of the tracks is able to stand above the rest. No can do, amigo.
But give it time. For this, I procured a few wines for later amazement, upon which I am going to have to put my nether regions on the line by saying that the Leeu Passant Franschhoek Sémillon bears, slightly, the most allurement in the range. And it comes down to delicacy.
I love delicate wines. Wines that caress the being, instead of just wetting it with splashes of discernible flavours and screaming for attention by means of a tannin-fuelled grip. Thys Louw from Diemersdal Estate refers to a good white wine as something that reminds him of the water from a gushing mountain stream, and this I, too, find in white wines to which I keenly attach the label of ‘delicate’.
The Leeu Passant Sémillon in question – 2022 – is from a Franschhoek vineyard turning 61 this year, farmed dryland on a combination of alluvial and rocky soils. As can be expected from a wine in the hands of Andrea Mullineux, all fermentation is spontaneous – including malolactic. It was kept for 12 months in barrel, on the lees, and finished-off in concrete egg.
Mystery is an engaging partner to delicacy. And though my palate does not share the cultured astuteness of true wine critics, I can confidently state that Sémillon is not a variety that jumps at you from the glass. I felt a tad better when, after my initial visit, I poured the wine blind to a company of people I deem experts, without a single taster tagging it as being made from this variety.
There are aromatics, with scents of pastoral spring pastures, sorrel and mountain breeze drifting gently from the glass, with a hint of green apricot alluding to the presence of acidity and that this could be a wine. The coy restraint shown by the wine’s aroma extends to the attack on the palate, which is about as aggressively assertive as a bunch of samba dancers attempting to take on the All Black tight-five.
Cool and fragile, the wine lies in the mouth like a droplet of pre-dawn condensation on a dandelion petal, before carefully sending exploratory beams of flavour to probe the senses. There is a sliver of sappy cantaloupe, cold and ripe, with a powdery throw of lime-zest. Brisk notes of green apple lurk, prodding to the fore as the wine warms in the mouth. Provençal potpourri adds an exotic, feral edge which is dangerously exciting in the wine’s clear-eyed fragility, and allow for an unexpectedly long, confident finish.
The firm waxy quince and perception of lanolin that many of Franschhoek’s Sémillon wines evoke are not present here, making the Leeu Passant more a case of reimagining terroir than reflecting it.
This takes vision, skill and the eye of an artist, all three obviously playing a major role in the crafting of a truly memorable white wine.
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