Andrea Mullineux describes the 2025 as ‘a pretty incredible vintage,’ citing the ‘crazy mid-palate’ and beautiful fruit texture as defining characteristics. Her 2025 Leeu Passant cabernet, sourced from a single organic-certified estate in the Helderberg, at around 300-400m elevation, is one of the most svelte wines of this selection; medium-bodied rather than full, it is wine of easy grace, displaying natural vivacity and refreshing acidity and concentrated cassis, red-plum and sour-cherry fruit. There is a sappy, garden-herb freshness to the perfume and a distinctive pencil-shavings character; the fruit is ripe but also has a coolness to it, and the tannins are so silky and linear. Andrea loves a long maceration time for cab, and this had four weeks on its skins. Pressed to 500-litre barrels, it is now harmonising in 5,000-litre wooden vessels before bottling. This is an energetic, nimble Helderberg cab with all of the precision and detail you’d expect from Mullineux & Leeu. Drink from 2030 to 2045. 13.5%
