The Darling Wine Shop

Yesterday the first Darling Wine Shop opened thanks to the enthusiasm of Charles Withington and Serge Damseaux of Withington Wines. A bunch of people attended this marvelous little event, showcasing the Darling area. VIP's included Mzoli of Mzoli's and Remington Norman. Representing the Darling Wineries included Abe Beukes of Darling Cellars, Nick and Peter Pentz of Groote Post, Hennie and Samuel of Tukulu, Michiel du Toit of Ormonde and Roger Sandiford and Peter Duckitt of Cloof to name a few.








So when you are in the Darling Area, come and support this great wine shop!

Almost Flowering Time

It is almost the end of October, and that means that flowering time is almost upon us. Flowering time is a very critical phase in the vineyard. The bunches is extremely vulnerable to fungus infections, especially Downy Mildew.

Luckily there is no signs of any diseases yet, so things are still looking good.

Sir Charles Henry Darling and Sauvignon blanc does it again!!

Well done to our winemakers for the following prizes won at the Wine Of The Month Club.

Onyx Sauvignon blanc 2009 - Best Sauvignon blanc of the year (Welma Visser)
Sir Charles Henry Darling 2007 - The Reserve Wine Club Bordeaux blend out of 20 wines (Abe Beukes)

End of September..

Its been a while since I posted an update. The vineyards are growing at a phenomenal rate. Here is just a few pics of Pinotage bush vine in Darling.

MUNDUS Vini 2011

Man am I excited!! Our wines are doing great on the international wine shows and competitions this year! It shows our ongoing dedication to putting quality products on the market. And now, one of my favourite wines in the Darling Cellars arsenal, The Sir Charles Henry Darling, have achieved a truly great reward. GOLD at the 11th MUNDUS Vini held in Germany. Congratulations to everyone that helped craft this fine wine.

The Michelangelo CCL Label International Wine Awards

Gold Medal winner - Darling Cellars Reserve "Six Tonner" Merlot


Silver Medal Winner - Darling Cellars Premium Shiraz



Silver Medal Winner - Darling Cellars Reserve "Arum Fields " Chenin Blanc

Growth Phases

I thought I'd share this with you. I didn't shrink the photos, so that you can maximize them to 100%. It is just better that way, specially with the budding eyes.

I will be numbering the phases according to the BBCH scale (describes the phenological development stages of a plant).

(05) Wool Bud stage

(09) Green Tip

(11) First Leaf unfolded

(13) Third leaf unfolded

to be continued...

The Beginning

It is almost the start of the 2011/2012 season for South Africa, and of course, Darling. The vines are waking up after their winter sleep, and soon we will be in full motion, working hard to get the best quality grapes for 2012, and to get the best quality wines out in the market. This is a journey I enjoy so much every year. This is what makes me get up every morning.

Award Time!!

I would like to congratulate our winemakers on the following awards won at the regional Young Wine Show:

Champion Scarce Red wine Cultivar – Barbera

Champion Natural Sweet wine - Viognier

Class winner: Barbera Unwooded – Gold

Dry red blend – Shiraz/Grenache – Gold

Cabernet Sauvignon Unwooded – Silver

Ruby Cabernet Unwooded – Silver

Viognier Wooded - Silver

I am on the left (black jersey), Welma Visser (White Wine) and Carel Hugo (Red Wine)

Planting Carignan

Planting time again here in Darling, and this year we will be planting Semillon, Grenache, Shiraz, Nouvelle and Carignan.

Carignan is a red cultivar hailing from Aragon, Spain. Carignan is a heavy bearing cultivar and grows in an upright position. It does well in dry areas and are very sensitive to rot, specifically Downy Mildew.

The grapes are mainly used as a blending component due to the intense colour and natural high acidity (with low yields). Wines made from Carignan show spicy notes and red fruit. At Darling Cellars Carignan is mainly used as a blending component to add variation, colour and spicy flavour to the wines.

Blue Monday

Not all Mondays have to be dark and gloomy. Having a blue Monday might be positive, like for instance having your whole world surrounded by blue lupine flowers :)

Invaders Must Die

Probably a bit harsh as a heading for a vineyard blog, by I have an infinite hatred towards invading alien plants in our country. Working close to nature I see first hand the devastating effect invading plants have on our biodiversity and ecosystems. These plants just have a different way of growing, different water requirements (most cases much more than indigenous plants) etc. These trees can for instance dry up a riverbed, destroy valuable wetlands, which is very important in keeping water resources clean and filtered.

So, being part of Biodiversity and Wine Initiative, we are trying to do our part in combating the invasive trees on our property. The biggest culprit is the Port Jackson (Acacia saligna), all the way from "Down Under".

This Australian bugger displaces natural vegetation, uses a lot more water than the Fynbos and Renosterveld it drove out, the seeds survive fires and germinate and grow faster than the natural field, suppressing the field after a fire. It currently occupies an area of more than 1 900 000 hectares in South Africa.

Many hands make light work

Nice quote this. Works for most things in life. But one thing that is a reality - labour is expensive! And this is an expensive exercise, but one worth every cent. This is the same producer who put out the compost a week ago.

I must say, I prefer the straw to any other ground cover method in the vineyard. It betters infiltration tempo and efficiency. Minimizes soil temperature fluctuations. Stops erosion. Builds organic matter and biology in the soil. Feeds the soil. Protects the soil from the intense heat and UV. Keeps soil moisture better and longer. Limits topsoil evapotranspiration. I can go on and on, but I am a bit lazy after writing some other stuff on Darling Geology. I'll put that on our website some time next month. Have a nice day and enjoy the photos.

One year of Blogging for Darling Vines!

It has been exactly one year since I started the Darling Vines blog. I can tell you, it takes a lot more time than I thought, and getting stories aren't that easy. Don't get me wrong, a lot of things happen here at Darling Cellars, but sometimes it is just hard to write something about it. Someone who blogs will know what I mean.

Well, I though I would give some interesting stats for this entry, but first, this was the first blog post I wrote for Darling Vines: Introduction

There has almost been 4000 readers on Darling Vines, about 300 a month. Only 35 people are registered, so if you haven't registered, please do so by filling in you email address at the top right part of the page and follow the steps.

The top 3 referring sites are Darling Cellars, AMKA and Moomie.
Top 3 visitors nationality is South Africa, USA and UK.
Top 3 browsers used is Firefox, IE and Chrome.
Top 3 operating systems used is Windows, Apple and Unix

Top 3 articles read is Got some answers, Wine Magazine Top 10 Sauvignon blanc and Downy Mildew

Well, that's it for now. Hope you follow this blog in the next year, because there are some great things to come. So I end with this classic cliche... Watch this space!!!

Putting some back

Yesterday we started to put the compost of 2010 (Composting post) back into the vineyard. I am quite pleased to see the transformation of the compost since last year. I took samples in this morning, so I will see how it changed chemically since last year. The process to put it down is quite simple - we just use bins and then we will use forks to spread it out a bit.

The straw that we put in the vineyards seem to have a great effect on the soil - especially soil moisture content and soil temperature.

This will be a great experiment with the compost to see what the effect will be. Just some photos of yesterday.

Darling Cellars Winter News Letter

Winter 2011 Newsletter. A warm and hearty ‘hello!’ from Darling, where winter has set in properly, although we have a bit of a reprieve today from the rain and cold weather of the last week or so. It’s been a while since the last newsletter, so I’ll get straight into it. The first event of the year was our Crush Day Yes, we had our annual Crush day at the end of February and like the previous four years, the day was a resounding success. For those who attended, you can collect your wines from October onwards, I’ll send out a reminder mail in spring again. Some pictures are available on our Facebook fan page, so please log onto Facebook, search for Darling Cellars and post some pictures if there are some you’d like to share with us. Awards It has been a great year on the international front for our wines with Silver and Bronze medals in abundance. Some noteworthy awards have been: Sir Charles Henry Darling – Silver at Decanter - and Premium Noble Late Harvest – Silver at International Wine Challenge. For the rest,please visit our website and click on wines and then on awards. New releases After many, many a year, we decided to revamp our Zantsi Natural Sweet packaging and we hope you’ll be as excited with the new labelling as we all are here at the cellar. While we were at it, we decided to make a sparkling Zantsi that is now being test marketed and is packaged in a 375ml bottle. Wow, what a success!

This little gem is currently only being sold on the West Coast or through the cellar door, so if you want to order some, please click here. We will also very soon release the Cellar Master’s Signature Selection No.2! Those in the know, will remember that No.1 was a Petit Verdot. So when No.1 was sold out, we asked Abé for another interesting varietal and he said: “Nouvelle!” Now this will make a few people sit up and some others go: “What?” Nouvelle is a white varietal which was created by Professor Chris Orffer at Stellenbosch University and is a cross breed between Semillon and Trebbiano. The varietal is mainly used in blends and produces wines with strong grassy and green pepper notes. (Information courtesy of WOSA website). Details of the release of this wine will be included in our next newsletter. “Tree-free” Save the trees! For those avid Darling Cellars supporters, you might have noticed in the last 4 months that the texture of the label has changed slightly. That is because we decided to make a change for the better. With our label partner, Paarl Labels, we are the first cellar in South Africa to use this paper, made from sugar cane, on a commercial level. The natural feel of the label paper goes a long way to carry over a sense of class and emphasises our slogan: Naturally Darling. The back labels also reflect the official “Tree-free” logo. So with the use of this “tree-free” paper, we are doing our bit to alleviate the pressure on nature.

Our efforts with regard to safety and quality management systems received a positive boost early in the new year with Darling Cellars achieving an A rating after its BRC audit, for the third time. This certification ensures that Darling Cellars adheres to Best Practice Principles in its production of wines and can be compared to any other producer on the planet with an equal BRC rating. For more info on BRC, please click here. Our Social responsibility effort also got a helping hand with WIETA accreditation. The Wine Industry Ethical Trading Association mission is to improve the working conditions of employees in the wine industry. It addresses issues such as child labour, living wages, etc. For more information, please click here.

Winter is here!!!

YES, it is cold, the North-West is blowing and the cold fronts keep coming! I know it is actually almost mid winter, but the rain came a bit later than expected. Not so nice to work in the vineyards, but good for the field and the vines. A beautiful winters day in Darling. Just a bit of snow visible on the mountains towards Tulbagh.