Two Cape Crusaders: Alheit & Mullineux
BY NEAL MARTIN |
The reinvention of South Africa’s wine industry has been one of the most remarkable and perhaps unexpected phenomena of the last 20 years. Spearheading that change has been a cluster of visionaries who rewrote, and continue to rewrite, the Capelands’ rulebook. One cannot overstate the impact of the Swartland region, a hotbed of talent where winemakers aspired to produce higher-quality and more soulful, low-intervention/terroir-specific wines with a South African identity. The corollary has been a different mind-set among the new generation of winemakers. Stephen Tanzer has already profiled the most famous and influential, Eben Sadie, with a vertical of Columella (at some point in the future, I intend to follow this up with a look at Sadie’s Old Vine Series.) This article spotlights two more acclaimed, cutting-edge winemakers whose journeys I have followed from their earliest days: Chris Alheit of Alheit Family Wines, and Chris Mullineux, who, together with his wife Andrea, runs Mullineux & Leeu.
Chris Alheit of Alheit Family Wines in London
Alheit Family Wines: Cartology 2011-2016
Last summer, Chris Alheit flew to London to tutor the first complete vertical of Cartology for the Masters of Wine students plus one stowaway - me. I first met Alheit before he had even released his maiden 2011 Cartology, when he was sharing a facility with partners-in-crime John Seccombe of Thorne & Daughters and Peter-Allan Finlayson of Crystallum and now Gabriëlskloof. I vaguely remember tasting the 2011 from barrel and recognizing both a promising debut and a contemplative, principled winemaker who could go far. It was over lunch during the biannual Cape Show that I was blown away by the finished wine, which put Alheit on the map. I raved accordingly. Almost overnight, Alheit became a star and, like Eben Sadie, came to be seen as part of the new generation of winemakers pushing the boundaries of what South African wine could be.
In front of a packed room, Alheit was in reflective but garrulous mood as he recounted his journey into wine, one that meandered but nevertheless led to one destination. He highlighted the challenges for a young person starting off in the industry, the sweat and the tears that I once witnessed myself when Alheit arrived late for a tasting of new releases. Red-faced and covered in sweat, he collapsed into a chair, apologizing for his tardiness and explaining that to pick his vines in Skurfberg in the morning, he had to jump in his 4x4 at 1:30am every day. He had just completed an 18-hour shift, and it would be the same throughout harvest.
So how did it all come about?
“I was studying medicine. I was a poor student and I soon realized that it was unlikely I would graduate. I made friends with others studying winemaking and changed my course. That’s when I met my wife Suzanne, who was also studying winemaking, and we travelled around Western Australia and California together. We lived on a farm just outside Stellenbosch, but within two vintages we became concerned that maybe that was all there was to life. Then I tasted some of Eben Sadie’s wines and that opened our eyes. We felt a longing to go to Europe, and so [leaving Stellenbosch] I did a vintage in Bordeaux, where I tasted some old vintages. That was really my first immersion in French wine. Then I worked in Clare Valley, and then came back to Europe. Summer 2010 was when our ideas “clarified,” when we went to Santorini and stayed on the coast, rented a scooter and drove around the country drinking wine. We were amazed how fresh and vibrant the wines could be in such a hot climate. Then we also went to Calce and spent a day tasting at Domaine Gauby and Domaine Matassa, and finally finished in the Mosel. The common feature with these wines is authenticity. That idea turned us on.”
