Crush day 2011

Saturday 26 February marked the 3rd annual Darling Cellars Crush Day. The weather was perfect. For the staff the day started at 06:00, for the guests at 07:30.

The guests arrived from seven o'clock, and breakfast was served from half past seven. Half past eight everyone was on the tractors and on the way to the vineyards.

The grapes was cut and I think everyone enjoyed it very much.












Back we went to the cellar and the grapes was stomped in pairs. Great fun!!

A traditional West Coast lunch was served (Snoek and Sweet potato) together with a nice glass of cold Darling Cellars Sauvignon blanc.

Thanks for everyone that attended and hope to see you back again next year!

The Whites

As promised, a few paragraphs from our white wine maker, Welma Visser, about this year's harvest up till now.

"Most of our whites are already harvested and almost finished with fermentation. Our Chenin blanc is about 35% down in tonnage in comparison with last year, because of the low rainfall. The whites also show very much promise this year, with a lot of guava and tropical fruits on the Chenin blanc.

The Sauvignon blanc is so far up in tonnage with 31% and we still have to harvest a bit more. They filled the cellar with passion fruit flavours during fermentation, but now that they have finished they are starting to show those nettles and grassy flavours. These wines also have a great mouth feel with an elegant finish. We can`t wait to start blending and combining the flavours.

We harvested about 30 tons of Nouvelle and it is always a treat to work with it, because it is a very fragrant cultivar and can easily be confused with Sauvignon blanc. This year I have a tank that has a perfume of green peppers. That is the only way I can explain it, because it is very forthcoming. It is always nice to have such a tank in the cellars to use as blending component.

Our Chardonnay is a hit once again this year with a lot of esters such as bananas and are starting to show more citrus. The Viognier on the other hand has more peach flavours and has a good palate weight.

I am looking forward to having our first 2011 wine in the bottle by April and I am sure it is going to be a great one."

We are harvesting the last Viognier today, here are some photos of the grapes

And the view from this block...

The harvest thus far

I asked our redwine maker, Carel Hugo, to give me a short description of how he feels about the harvest up to now. Here is what he had to say:

"Most of the Pinotage has been harvested, and now that Abe, Jaco and myself tasted most of them, I am very pleased with the quality. This year marks very good colour and intense fruit, probably due to the riper harvesting and the small berries caused by the abnormally dry year. I can hardly wait to see how they progressed after malolactic fermentation. It is only the Premium Pinotage that is still on the vines. We will harvest this on Wednesday.

Only two Shiraz tanks has been pressed, and the one already shows deep, dark plum with the other one showing good, deep colour with peppery hints.

Colour and fruit intensity looks very promising and is destined for your tipical award winning wines. 2011 Shows signs of "block buster" wines.

The Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon is busy fermenting and it is a bit too early to comment on them. I have a very positive feeling about 2011"

So there you have it. Overall the wines looks good. The Sauvignon blancs also look very promising, and I will try to get a quick chat with our white wine maker, Welma Visser for the next blog entry.

We are at 50% of the harvest now. Cultivars that still need to be harvested are: Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Grenache, Tinta Barroca, Mourvedre, Petit Verdot, Cabernet franc, Shiraz, Carignan, Pinotage, Viognier, Sauvignon blanc and Cinsaut. So as you can see, still a pretty busy next few weeks ahead at Darling Cellars!

Carel on the left with Abe, our Cellar Master, on the right

Hot air balloon

On my way to work, there is a patch of land where a brown VW van launches a hot air balloon early in the mornings. Obviously only on the days when the wind is absent.

Every time I drive pass it, I envy them. I would love to take a hot air balloon and drift across the Darling vineyards. Just imagine how awesome it would be if I could personally take aerial photographs of each block, especially in mid February. I almost took to the skies with an old bloke last year...

I was busy in the vineyards, and suddenly a microlight landed in the path between the vineyards. It was a double seater. The back seat was empty. The old man started to chat to me about the vineyards. Why we do bush vine. Why we don't irrigate. Basically all the things that makes us different here at Darling Cellars.

Man I wanted to fly up there with him, but firstly I didn't have my big camera with me, and secondly I was waiting for people in the vineyards, to show them how we harvest. I had to decline his kind offer for a quick trip, and he was off again.

Maybe, just maybe, the old bloke would come and visit me again, and this time I'll be ready!

Family outing

This is something you don't see everyday. I snapped this little family just before lunch time. This is the first time that I have seen such a small Blue Crane chick. It is great to see that they are breeding, since they are classified as vulnerable.

In the vineyards

Today I'm breaking away from the stainless steel jungle, and focusing on our vineyards again. Today we are harvesting bush vine Chenin blanc, Viognier, Shiraz and Pinotage. The grapes that came in this week was optimally ripe and of premium quality. The tonnage per hectare is in the right spot and I am generally pleased with the quality.

Yesterday was yet another scorcher with a mild 39 degrees Celsius... Today is almost the same. Our main quality aspect lies in the method of producing our grapes - un-irrigated bush vines. This makes the current climatic conditions very difficult at the moment - considering that we only had 70% of last years rain, of which fell way too early in last year Autumn. I see the weather service are predicting some rain for the weekend. This would be a blessing from above.

Well, enough of my blah-blah and more photos!

Pinotage

Barbera