If we are in Darling, we always try to visit the Darling Wine Shop. Owner Charles Withington is a friend and it is always good to see him and catch up on the local wines and gossip. We spent some time with him this trip, tasting wine before going off for lunch at the Darling Brewery
We began with a really great wine, Nicky Versveld's 2012 Semillon, made for the Cape Winemakers' Guild Auction. It has peaches on the nose, lovely expected fatness on the palate from the Semillon and mature tastes of a good white port or dry, dry sherry. Scrumptious. If you have some, try it as an apéritif. We wish we had some
Charles is busy blending his Roan Ranger Red and wanted us to taste some of his new blends and comment on them
We had the current 2018 vintage - a blend of Grenache, Cinsault and Mourvèdre
The Cinsault shows first, it has savoury notes with juicy red berries and salty licorice on the end
Then we tasted the new 2019 vintage, which also has those savoury umami notes first, soft and silky with juicy cherries and berries, and long flavours. The two blends A and B are very different. Both good in their own right but we preferred A which has lots of fruit , perfume on the nose. It draws you in, and repeats on the palate; a fruit bomb, and definitely a food wine. B was shyer, the wood shows as expensive oak, perfumed and with dry tannins and supporting fruit acids, this is one to put away to drink later. Charles has still to make his choice, but he said we helped a lot
We took him to Darling Brewery for lunch (at his recommendation) and were not disappointed
The wines we had at lunch and Kevin Wood, owner of the Darling Brewery, who joined us for a chat
Charles had brought along two of Darling Cellars’ best wines:
Gustus, a complex, fruity and very sophisticated, layered Chenin
and Darling Lime Kilns Chardonnay, Dry and delightful, with crisp citrus flavours
The menu is very good and has quite a few vegetarian options
Lynne fancied fish again, so ordered the very fresh hake in crisp beer batter (what else in a brewery!)
and it came with vinegar, tartar sauce and tomato ketchup
and the most sensationally crisp chips ever, the outside is like glass and they melt inside
John had the famous hamburger which came with bacon and avocado
He'd had it before and knew how good it would be
Layers of bacon and a brioche bun so good that it wasn't left on the board
We were then taken on a tour of the spotless brewery by Kevin Wood
The company's original brewing vessels
and what they use now
KeyKeg, an innovative way of selling draught beer, made in Holland
https://www.keykeg.com/en/home
New steel kegs, costing R1600 each. These have become a problem in lock down,
as they are hired out for a deposit of R400 a time and many have been caught up in restaurant and bar closures. Ouch
Old Bourbon barrels which are used for a limited edition dark beer called ....
..... Arrow Head
and some of the finished product, Bone Crusher, a classic white beer, named for the hyena, ready to go out to the market
The Darling beers are very good, made the correct way with just three ingredients: Water, malted barley and hops
All content © John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus
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