About The Winelands #21 - An Interview with Lourens Relihan, Marketing Manager of Darling Cellars, South Africa

About The Winelands welcomes Lourens Relihan, Marketing Manager of Darling Cellars, located on the West Coast of South Africa. Darling Cellars is situated on the cool west coast of South Africa on the R315 between Malmesbury and Darling, approximately 1 hour’s drive from Cape Town and 15 kms from the coast line.

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About Darling Cellars

Making wine is a biological and scientific form of art however, as many factors vary from year to year, it is the winemakers’ challenge to make wines that show the difference in vintage and cultivar, but not to vary too much from year to year.

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Unirrigated vineyards – Bush vines from the cool West Coast

The cool and temperate West Coast climate lends itself to a variety of different micro- and meso-climates which, along with the different soil types, lead to unique grapes which we guide into even more unique wines. With approximately 95% of all our vineyards being Unirrigated (dry land) and roughly the same percentage being bush vines (i.e. not trellised), this is as close as one can get to what nature intended for grapes to be. These varying factors result in wines that are true to the terroir from which they come and are true to the identity which we have crafted over time for our wines. Investment continues in the winery and cellar with some of the most modern and up to date winemaking equipment in our industry today. A modern bottling line, new presses, a barrel maturation cellar, a new grape off-loading system and continuing replanting of vineyards, to include noble cultivars, all contribute to our advances in contemporary winemaking.

In the Darling cellar, the grapes and wines are handled as natural and pure as possible.

Good grapes, good equipment, educated people that make wine with passion are some of the key elements to produce wine.

DARLING CELLARS, where Bush vines grow up tough, and that’s what gives them character!

The Wines of Darling Cellars

This is our less is more philosophy – the less fruit we get from each hand-harvested vine the better the quality of our wines.

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Take a drive along the West Coast

The Darling area historically is a dairy area and only the last 10 – 15 years, grape growing has thrived. Darling is renowned for its wild flowers and it is one of the Western Cape’s most diverse areas. The Darling Wildflower Society was founded in 1915 with an annual show in September.