Spice Route Swartland Mourvedre
£18.99
£25.32 per litre · incl. 20% VAT
Only 5 bottles left
Single-varietal Mourvèdre is a rare beast outside Bandol, and this Swartland version is proof that South Africa's wild west coast was built for it. Dark, meaty and shot through with spice and tangy red fruit, it's the kind of bottle that turns a midweek stew into something memorable. Distinctive, generous and quietly serious.
Not for sale to persons under 18. Adult signature required on delivery.
UK wide delivery
Expert curated
Our Verdict
We listed this because so few producers have the nerve to bottle Mourvèdre on its own, and even fewer pull it off this convincingly. There's a savoury, almost gamey backbone here that you simply can't fake; it comes from old bush vines digging deep into Koffieklip soil under a punishing Swartland sun. We'd reach for this when Pinotage feels too familiar and Shiraz feels too obvious, it's the bottle that surprises every guest at the table. If you love Bandol or Châteauneuf-du-Pape but fancy something with a bit more sunshine in the glass, this is your wine.
Tasting Notes
Mourvèdre rarely shows up solo, and when it does, it tells you exactly why Bandol guards it so jealously. The nose is meaty and savoury, think cured charcuterie, dried herbs, a flash of black pepper, wrapped around tangy red cherry and darker blackberry fruit. The palate has that thick-skinned Swartland concentration: dense, lightly grippy, with a peppery, almost gamey edge that lingers through a long, herbal finish. Wild, characterful, unmistakably Cape.
About This Wine
Mourvèdre on its own is a brave choice. Most winemakers blend it away into a GSM, where it lends structure and savoury depth but rarely gets the spotlight. Spice Route hands it the microphone, and the Swartland's hot days, cool nights and iron-rich soils give it everything it needs to deliver. Expect a wine that smells like a Sunday kitchen: smoked meat, dried herbs, crushed black pepper, with tangy red berries and inky blackberry underneath. The palate is dense without being heavy, with the kind of grippy, savoury finish that begs for food. This is what happens when thick-skinned berries from unirrigated bush vines meet seasoned French and American oak, and a small portion aged in clay qvevri, which adds a lifted, almost mineral edge you don't often find in Swartland reds. Pour it alongside slow-braised lamb shanks, a herb-rubbed leg of lamb, or a proper oxtail stew. It also has the swagger to handle a charcoal-grilled ribeye or a smoky chorizo and bean cassoulet. Cellar-curious? It'll happily settle for another few years. From the Klein Amoskuil farm just outside Malmesbury, this is part of the Charles Back stable, the man who helped put modern Swartland on the world map. Delivered to your door anywhere in the UK, it makes a brilliant gift for anyone who's tired of the usual suspects and ready to discover what South Africa's most exciting region is really capable of.
Food Pairing
Mourvèdre lives for slow-cooked, savoury food. Reach for a lamb shoulder braised with rosemary and garlic, a rich oxtail stew, or a Sunday roast with all the trimmings. It's brilliant with charcuterie boards, saucisson, chorizo, a wedge of aged Manchego, and stands up beautifully to anything off the braai or the charcoal grill.
- —Slow-braised lamb shoulder with rosemary and garlic
- —Oxtail stew with red wine and root vegetables
- —Charcoal-grilled ribeye with peppercorn sauce
- —Charcuterie board with saucisson, chorizo and aged Manchego
- —Roast duck with thyme and dark cherry jus
How to Serve
Decanting
Give it 45 minutes to an hour in a decanter. Mourvèdre can show reductive, slightly closed notes on opening, and a bit of air lets the savoury complexity and red fruit really unwind.
Behind the Wine
Swartland summers are hot and dry, with the Atlantic close enough to send cooling breezes inland late in the day. Spice Route's Mourvèdre comes from unirrigated bush vines that have learned to dig deep for moisture, ripening slowly into small, thick-skinned berries packed with flavour. That late, unhurried ripening is the secret here, it gives the wine both the dark, savoury weight of true Mourvèdre and the bright tang of red fruit that keeps it lively in the glass.
Ageing Potential
Built to drink well now, with enough structure to evolve for another four to six years in a decent cellar. Over time the savoury, meaty notes deepen and the tannins soften further, while the bright red fruit slowly shifts towards dried cherry and leather.
The Land
These bush vines are rooted in Koffieklip, a hard, iron-rich 'coffee stone' that holds heat and forces roots deep, and Oakleaf, a sandy loam over decomposed granite. Together they keep yields tiny (around three tonnes a hectare) and the berries concentrated, which is why the wine tastes the way it does: dense, savoury, and unmistakably Swartland.
The Winemaking
Hand-picked grapes are destemmed, lightly crushed and fermented in open concrete kuipe, the old-school South African vessel, with regular manual punch-downs to coax flavour and structure from those thick skins. After about a week on skins the wine is pressed off and settled into seasoned French and American barrels, with a small portion ageing in qvevri, the traditional clay amphorae. Seasoned oak rather than new keeps the focus on the grape; the clay adds a quiet roundness to the mid-palate.
The Swartland Region
Swartland, 'the black land' in Afrikaans, named for the renosterbos that darkens after rain, rolls out north of Cape Town across the hills around Malmesbury and Riebeek-Kasteel. It's hot, dry, and stubbornly characterful: a place of old bush vines, granite and koffieklip soils, and a community of growers who've made it the most quietly thrilling corner of South African wine. Concentration, freshness, and a wild streak you don't find elsewhere, that's Swartland in a glass.
About the Producer
Spice Route
Spice Route is one of the names that made the Swartland matter. Long before the region became shorthand for exciting South African wine, Charles Back, the man behind Fairview in Paarl, saw something in this hot, dry stretch of land near Malmesbury that others overlooked: old bushvines, low yields, and soil that seemed to concentrate flavour rather than dilute it.
What draws us to Spice Route is that sense of conviction. This isn't a producer chasing trends. It's one that helped set them, proving the Swartland could produce structured, age-worthy reds rather than just bulk wine for blending. The name itself tells you what to expect: wines built on rich, ripe Swartland fruit, layered with careful oak handling, the way a good cook uses spice to lift a dish rather than mask it.
The range leans into varieties that thrive in the heat. Pinotage gets a serious, savoury treatment here rather than the confected style some associate with the grape. Mourvèdre, still rare in South African vineyards, shows real class in Spice Route's hands, offering the kind of dried herb and dark fruit complexity you'd expect from an old vine planting. And Chakalaka, named after the spicy South African relish, is exactly what it promises: a warm, generous, food-friendly blend that captures the whole philosophy in one glass.
We stock Spice Route because it represents Swartland wine at its most confident. It's not trying to be Stellenbosch, and it's not trying to be Bordeaux. It's proudly, distinctively itself, grown on a converted tobacco farm that turned out to be one of the best pieces of vineyard land in the country. Tim Atkin MW recognised as much, awarding the estate Cru Bourgeois status in his South Africa Classification, a nod to consistent quality rather than passing hype.
For UK wine lovers who think they know what South African red wine tastes like, Spice Route is a useful correction. Delivered to your door, it's a chance to taste the Swartland at the source, from a producer that helped put the region on the map in the first place.