Leeu Estates
The Mullineux wines you've read about, poured at the quiet end of Franschhoek — a five-star estate that treats a tasting as the main event, not the amenity. Here's who makes it, what to taste, and the bottle to take home.
Most great South African wine you have to chase. This one you can sit down to. At the mountain end of the Franschhoek valley, away from the village crush, Leeu Estates pours the Mullineux and Leeu Passant wines in a room built for them — and it happens to be a five-star hotel wrapped around that room. Check in for the night, or simply come to drink. Either works.
It's the flagship of the Leeu Collection, the Cape hospitality group that Indian businessman Analjit Singh assembled after falling for this valley — a hotel in the village, a spa, an art gallery, and this estate on the edge of town. The name is a joke that runs the whole way through. Leeu is Afrikaans for lion; Singh's own surname means lion too. The wines pick the pun up and carry it.
Who's actually making the wine
This is the part that matters. Chris and Andrea Mullineux made their name in the Swartland — the rough wheat-and-vine country north of Cape Town — with single-terroir Syrahs that dragged the region onto the world stage. Then they threw in with Singh, and Mullineux & Leeu Family Wines is what came out: their winemaking, his resources, and a Franschhoek showroom finally worthy of the bottles.
Andrea Mullineux has been named among the best winemakers working anywhere, and you can taste the priorities in a single sip. Restraint over power. Transparency over oak. A near-obsessive fix on where a wine actually comes from. That's the thread running from their Swartland range straight through to the Cape-wide Leeu Passant project.
The Mullineux gift is subtraction — old vines and specific soils, allowed to speak without anyone shouting over them.
Two ranges, one hand
The portfolio splits clean down the middle, and you should know which half you're drinking.
The Mullineux wines are pure Swartland. The signature move is a trio of Syrahs off schist, granite and iron-rich soils, bottled separately so you taste the ground and not just the grape. Around them sit an old-vine white blend and a straw wine that ranks with the Cape's best dessert bottlings. If you want the fastest way to understand why these two matter, start with the Syrah: peppery, fine-boned, nothing like the jammy version the grape becomes in hotter, clumsier hands.
The Leeu Passant range is the other half, and the one this estate is really about. It reaches past the Swartland to some of the oldest vineyards in the country. Two pillars hold it up: a Dry Red, Cabernet-led and threaded with fruit from heritage Cinsault vines planted generations ago, and a taut, age-worthy old-vine Chardonnay. The Leeu Passant "Old Vines" Cinsault bottlings, drawn from a few surviving pre-war blocks, are collector wine — pale, perfumed reds that argue South African wine history right there in the glass.
Taste the two ranges side by side and you get a short course in what the modern Cape does best: precise, site-driven wine that trusts the vineyard over the cellar trick.
The setting
For a lot of people the estate is the whole reason to come, and fair enough. It sits back against the mountains, well clear of the village noise, vineyards and clipped gardens running up to a restored manor house. The mood is unapologetically five-star — this is a hotel first, and it never pretends otherwise. What sets it apart is that the wine gets treated as the event, not the room-service afterthought. Tastings happen in a purpose-built room on the property, and the wider Leeu Collection stacks art, food and a spa around the visit if you want to make a day, or a stay, of it.
For the valley these wines sit in — the Huguenot history, the restaurants, the other estates worth your afternoon — see our guide to Franschhoek wine.
Visiting
Come for a seated tasting, and book ahead — this is a small, high-end estate, not a drop-in cellar door, so a reservation is how you get through the gate, especially over the busy summer stretch from roughly November to February. This is the one place in Franschhoek to taste the Mullineux and Leeu Passant wines side by side, so don't squeeze it between two other cellars. Build it into a slower plan; the estate does overnight stays and food through the wider collection, and it rewards the extra time. Current experiences, timings and fees live on the estate's own site — check there before you travel.
What to buy
One bottle home, make it a Mullineux Syrah — the single-terroir Swartland reds are the clearest statement of what these winemakers do, and they age beautifully. From the estate's own range, reach for the Leeu Passant Dry Red: Cabernet and old-vine Cinsault, tasting of Cape history without ever turning into a museum piece. And if you're laying something down, the Leeu Passant Chardonnay is the white to cellar — restrained now, built to reward a few years of patience.
Common questions
Two things at once, done at the same address. It's the flagship of the Leeu Collection — a five-star hotel estate in gardens at the mountain end of the Franschhoek valley — and it's the Franschhoek home of Mullineux & Leeu Family Wines, the partnership behind the world-ranked Mullineux Swartland wines and the old-vine Leeu Passant range. You can check in for the night, or you can just come to drink.
Chris and Andrea Mullineux. They built their name in the Swartland on single-terroir Syrah, then joined forces with owner Analjit Singh to form Mullineux & Leeu Family Wines and add the Cape-wide, old-vine Leeu Passant project. Andrea Mullineux has been named among the finest winemakers working anywhere. Confirm the current cellar team on the winery's own site.
Same hands, different ground. The Mullineux wines are Swartland to the core — schist, granite and iron soils bottled as distinct single-terroir Syrahs, plus an old-vine white and a benchmark straw wine. Leeu Passant reaches wider, across the Cape, built around some of South Africa's oldest vineyards: best known for a Cabernet-and-Cinsault Dry Red and a taut, restrained old-vine Chardonnay.
Yes — book ahead, and further ahead over the busy summer (roughly November to February). This is a small, high-end estate, not a walk-in cellar door, so a reservation is the reliable way through the gate. Details and bookings are on the Leeu Collection's own site.
Glossary
- Leeu Passant
- The Mullineux–Leeu partnership's Cape-wide range built around old vineyards, its name playing on Analjit Singh's surname — 'Singh' meaning lion, 'leeu' the Afrikaans for lion, and 'passant' the heraldic term for a walking lion.
- Old-vine Cinsault
- Cinsault (once called Hermitage in South Africa) from decades-old bush vines; a handful of surviving heritage blocks give pale, fragrant, silky reds that have become central to the Cape's old-vine revival — and to Leeu Passant.