Cape Town - In all the years I've lived in Cape Town I have never spent any time in the West Coast town of Darling.
I went to Evita se Perron once, I think, and have driven through, but never actually lingered.
The good people at West Coast Way changed all that.
On an oven-hot Tuesday, they loaded a bunch of food journalists and bloggers into a van and headed up the R27 on a mini-adventure.
First stop was the Darling Cellars, where we were taken on a tour of the cellars by award-winning white wine make Maggie Venter. I confess that the intricacies of wine-making make me glaze over a little, but the coolness and the deep fruity smells of the various cellars stay with me, as does the tasting we did after the tour.
Darling Cellars has been in business for decades, and their selling point is that their wines are made almost entirely from bush vines - that is vines which get no irrigation and which offer a low yield yet high quality grape.
At the wine tasting we were given a range of their less expensive wines (my favourite kind) - from the 2015 sauvignon blanc which retails for about R35 to the 2013 shiraz which sells for R48. All were excellent and are now firm additions on my wine shopping list.
We then hopped back on the bus and drove through to Darling, where we were given a tour of the charming museum - small but filled to the brim with interesting highlights from the history of the town, which is named after Charles Henry Darling, a Lieutenant Governor of the then Cape Colony. The town began life on the farm Langfontein in 1853.
We didn't have time, but I longed to do the museum's mystery trail which involves a map, some clues and a walk or ride round the town.
And from the museum to the spanking new brewery of beer makers Darling Brew.
The brewery was in the last stages of construction on our tour and is due to open early in December.
In spite of frantic building activity, beer was being made, bottled and dispatched as we were taken round by Philippa Wood, one half of the husband and wife duo who have built up this business since 2008.
Their initial small craft brewing business has blossomed into an enterprise which employs 40 people, all working in the high-tech and shiny brewery. There will also be a restaurant on site, which was very much still being built when we visited.
Wood was frank about Darling Brew and its status as a “craft beer” maker. “In South Africa there are no real official distinctions but we qualify as a microbrewery in the United States,” she said. Their aim with the new brewery is to ensure quality and consistency across all their beers.
To test that, we were whisked to their town taproom Slow Quarter for a lunch and a very welcome cold beer. They make a variety of ales, from pale to dark. The Slow Beer, a lager, is their best seller and their “love it or hate it” offering is a weiss beer called Bonecrusher.
My hands down favourite is the Native Ale - a name which they admit is not working, and is being rebranded as the Gypsy Mask. Whatever it's called, do your best to lay your hands on some.
Our next stop was to be Evita se Perron, the multi-purpose venue owned by Pieter Dirk-Uys, but we were waylaid by the genial Charles Withington, owner of the Darling Wine Shop which is in the same block as Slow Quarter. He treated us to an impromptu blind wine tasting - including a surprisingly good riesling. His vast knowledge of the wines of the region and the accessibility of his displays make this a good place to visit if your interests run to viticulture. And he has air-conditioning.
This made us too late for the Perron, and so we decamped at the Flying Pig deli in Station Street, which aims to offer good coffee and simple food based on local produce. Gil Ferreira introduced us to the art of charcuterie. His deli in Darling is one of two, the other being the Beulah Farm Deli - on the R27, 500m south of the Yzerfontein crossing. Gil told us his meats come from free-ranging pigs on a local farm. “The meat is as good as the pig eats,” he said. The sample we were given to take home did not last long - try as we might to make it last.
In the same building is Darling Sweet, maker and purveyor of homemade toffee. We tasted the plain butter and sugar, the honey and salt (sublime!), the orange and pomegranate, the red wine and chocolate, the liquorice and the Ormonde chenin blanc toffee. The business uses local workers and was inspired to make toffee - its only product - by the history of the Darling region, which was once a dairy farming hub.
A quick turn in the well-stocked Book League bookshop and stationers in the same complex - with a hello to the two resident cats - and we were back on the road to Cape Town.
It seems that while I was not looking this quiet inland town has transformed itself into a hub of food and drink goodness. It was a long, hot day but the hospitality, the delicious tastes and the sheer energy of the people of Darling will be tempting me back for a longer visit.
Websites:
www.darlingcellars.co.za
www.darlingmuseum.co.za/
www.darlingbrew.co.za
www.evita.co.za
www.preservethepig.com (Flying Pig)
www.darlingsweet.co.za
www.bookleague.co.za/
How to get your own Darling day trip
Which Way Trips has a new offering - the Darling Wine & Hops Trip. This largely recreates the experience described above - tasting wine, sampling beer and enjoying delicious food which is sourced locally.
Guests are fully chauffeured in a Which Way Trips mini bus for the entire day – so no driving is necessary.
Departing from Eden on the Bay in Blouberg (where parking is free), or from any central point in Cape Town at 9am, the first stop on the route is Darling Cellars. Which Way Trips will transfer guests to the Darling Museum and then to Darling Brew’s new brewery for some beer tasting and a delicious lunch made from locally sourced fresh produce.
Following lunch, guests are then taken for a visit to the famous Evita se Perron before heading back to Eden on the Bay.
“Which Way Trips will be running trips and shuttles throughout December - and will allow time for guests who have booked with Evita se Perron to attend the show and have lunch here. Other guests who are not booked for Evita se Perron will be taken for lunch and a visit to Darling Brew's new brewery,” says Carmen Lerm, founder of West Coast Way and Which Way Trips.
“Bespoke trips are also available, which are custom-made according to the customers’ requirements or wishes. For example, other well-known wine estates can be incorporated in the itinerary, such as Ormonde, Groote Post and Cloof.”
For more information:
www.westcoastway.co.za
Call West Coast Way on 0861 321 777
@reneemoodie