Darling Cellars

The Darling area is situated on the west coast of South Africa, some 50 miles north of Cape Town and surrounded on all sides by the Swartland region, and was given the Wine of Origin Darling demarcation in 2003. Some of Darling Cellars’ vineyards enjoy the coolness of the Darling Hills, just three miles from the roaring Atlantic, while others bask in sun in the flatter hinterland. Old bush vines and vast swathes of terroir lend diversity to the varietals and styles created here.

This wine shows a lot of tropical notes like peaches apricot and citrus fruit like orange peel. This is a seriously complexed wine that has a great mid palate with good length and ageing potential. This is a definite food wine.

Pairs well with smoked duck, roasted chicken, Norwegian salmon, pan-fried halibut, pumpkin ravioli , lobster, grilled veal chops with mushrooms and sushi.

The grapes are harvested from dryland farmed vineyards in Darling, where the vines are not trellised and planted as bush vines on deep red oakleaf soils. These grapes ripen as nature intended without human intervention. Vineyards are monitored for optimal picking times, adopting a combination of sampling and tasting to optimize the richer tropical (thiol) notes. The Viognier vines are situated high up in the south-western facing hills looking towards Table Mountain, Chenin Blanc harvested from 38 years old bush vines and the Chardonnay from 24 year old vines. All three vineyards produce very low yields of 2-3 tons per hectare. The grapes were crushed and destalked, then 12 hours of skin contact. The cultivars are barrel fermented separately in 500 litre French oak barrels. Then racked to barrels and left for 9 months on fine lees, followed by ageing for 2-3 months on fermentation lees to add complexity.