.: Wine Tasting at Darling Cellars and Groote Post

On our way back from our stay at Yzerfontein, we made a stop at Darling Cellars. They have a huge range of wines available for tasting and purchase, and the prices are very reasonable considering the very good quality. We often buy them for our everyday wine, especially their whites and rosés. We opted for the eight wines tasting and shared it. You can choose which eight wines you want to taste. We especially like the presentation, with an informative label on the base of each glass

The wines we chose to sample were the Reserve Arum Fields Chenin Blanc, R55, which is full-bodied and from hot vineyards, with a candy floss nose, no faults. The Reserve Bush Vine Sauvignon Blanc, R55 (also in a 2 litre box at R110) which is more tropical. The Quercus Gold Chardonnay, slightly pétillant, with lovely fruit, wooded from added oak, R55. We have previously bought the Pyjama Bush Rosé for summer drinking; it's a dry rosé, from a blend of Sauvignon Blanc with a touch of Grenache to add colour. Still excellent and rather Southern Rhône tasting, at R55 and also in a 2 litre box at R110. And then we tasted the Darling Cellars Merlot Rosé, another dry rosé, with a beautiful, pretty, perfumed red wine nose and everything you want from a summer Rosé at R44. This had to come home with us

There were two wines we wanted to compare: The Darling Cellars Chenin/Sauvignon Blanc which has a good nose, almost toffee in richness, round and pleasant on the palate and very good value at R44. We followed this with the Winemaker's selection Sauvignon Blanc/Chenin and were impressed with this excellent blend, R75. So we bought some of each. The Darling Gustus Chenin Blanc is always good; it has a big nose, wood showing on the palate with lighter fruit than previously. It is a wine that gets better with keeping, R95.

Then two reds: Because it has just won major Kudos overseas, we tasted the Chocoholic Pinotage, which is certainly full of coffee mocca chocolate. It has nice sweet fruit with soft tannins and dark chocolate coffee on the end, for those who love the style. We spotted the Capeman Red, a blend we love of Shiraz, Mourvedre, Grenache and love its flavours and complexity. It has good wood and tannin structures so we have put six bottles away for a couple of years to see where it goes. A steal at R55

All the wines can be seen and purchased online at https://shop.darlingcellars.co.za/index.php?route=product/catalog

This is the tasting room; you can also sit on their terrace outside
We each had a toasted cheese and chutney sandwich for lunch

On our way home, we went via one of our favourite West Coast wineries, Groote Post, and had a glass of their newly released MCC in the tasting room with Peter Pentz. Wow, really impressed by this classic dry wine, brioche on the nose, beautiful crisp, fine mousse, full of pear and lime flavours; very sophisticated and satisfying

It was a very, very hot day, you could see the heat coming off the ground

and every living thing was resting and quiet in the shade