Chocoholic Pinotage by Darling Cellars
£14.49
£19.32 per litre · incl. 20% VAT
Only 2 bottles left
If Pinotage has ever felt like hard work, this is the bottle that changes your mind. Darling Cellars makes it soft, plush and unashamedly indulgent: cherry, chocolate and a whisper of butterscotch, with tannins so smooth they barely register. A crowd-pleaser that earns its name, and a brilliant introduction to South Africa's own grape.
Not for sale to persons under 18. Adult signature required on delivery.
UK wide delivery
Our Verdict
We listed Chocoholic because it solves a real problem: the friend who claims they do not like Pinotage. Pour them this, plush, chocolatey and impossibly smooth, and watch them quietly refill the glass. It is not built for the cellar and does not pretend to be; it is built for pleasure, on a Friday night or after dinner with something rich and sweet. For the money it overdelivers spectacularly, which is why it keeps selling. We are down to our last couple of bottles, so if a charming, no-homework red appeals, do not hang about. A genuine gateway Pinotage, and a joyful one.
Tasting Notes
The nose leads with sweet spice and cocoa: think Turkish delight and dark chocolate lifted by red and black cherry, a curl of vanilla, and ripe red plum. That sweetness is aromatic, not sugary, so it pulls you in. The palate follows the same path, adding a warm streak of butterscotch from time on oak staves. Tannins are soft and supple, the texture rounded and gently sweet at the edges, and the finish lingers with cherry and chocolate. Easy to like, hard to put down.
About This Wine
Here is a wine that does exactly what it promises. Chocoholic takes Pinotage, South Africa's home-grown grape, and dials up everything people secretly want from a red: ripe fruit, a generous core of dark chocolate, and a finish that lingers like dessert. It is easy to love, and there is nothing wrong with that. The aromatics pull you straight in. Think Turkish delight, red and black cherry, vanilla and a touch of red plum, all carrying through to a palate touched with butterscotch and rounded by silky, supple tannins. The clever trick behind it: a small portion of the grapes is left to raisin on the vine by twisting the stalks, concentrating sweetness and depth, then blended back with oak-influenced Pinotage. A spell maturing on oak staves adds quiet complexity without ever stealing the show. It comes from bush vines on the decomposed granite slopes of the Darling Hills, where cool Atlantic afternoons keep the fruit fresh and fragrant. That balance is what stops all this richness tipping into heaviness. Pour it slightly cooled alongside sticky barbecue ribs, a meaty pasta bake, or a Sunday roast. Better still, save it for a chocolate pudding. It also makes a wonderfully easy gift for anyone with a sweet tooth, delivered to your door anywhere in the UK.
Food Pairing
This is a crowd-pleaser at the table. Its plush fruit and chocolate edge love a sticky barbecue rack of ribs or a peppered sirloin off the grill. It also handles a rich tomato and beef ragu over pappardelle with ease. Best of all, that subtle sweetness lets it do what few reds can: stand up to a dark chocolate pudding or a bowl of black cherries.
- —Sticky barbecue pork ribs
- —Char-grilled peppered sirloin steak
- —Beef and tomato ragu with pappardelle
- —Dark chocolate fondant
- —Mature Cheddar with black cherry compote
How to Serve
Decanting
No need to decant. Fifteen minutes in the glass is plenty for the chocolate and cherry aromas to unfurl, though a quick swirl wakes everything up nicely.
Behind the Wine
Darling sits close enough to the Atlantic that warm afternoons are tempered by cool ocean air, and that swing between heat and breeze is what gives this Pinotage its plush fruit without losing freshness. The vines are dry-land bush vines, unirrigated and forced to dig deep, which concentrates flavour into smaller, intense berries. Picked when ripe and generous, the fruit carries the sweet, dark-cherry richness that defines this style. Sourcing across several blocks in the Darling hills smooths out the differences between years, so the wine stays reliably soft, ripe and welcoming.
Ageing Potential
Built for pleasure now rather than the cellar. This is a fruit-driven, soft-textured style at its best on release and for two to four years after, when the cherry and chocolate notes stay vibrant. There is little to gain from longer keeping, so pour it young and generously.
The Land
These bush vines grow on the slopes of the Darling hills in deep, decomposed granite soils, the kind that drain freely and push roots down in search of moisture. Farmed dry, with no irrigation, the vines work hard and reward that struggle with concentrated fruit. The nearby Atlantic does the rest, cooling the warmest afternoons and preserving the bright cherry lift you taste in the glass.
The Winemaking
This is Pinotage built in two halves. Around a tenth of the crop has its stalks twisted on the vine, letting the grapes raisin in the sun and bringing a touch of sweet, almost dried-fruit decadence. That juice is folded into Pinotage fermented on its skins for five to six days in a warm range, drawing out colour and supple tannin. A portion then rests on oak staves for eight to twelve months, adding the vanilla and butterscotch warmth and the gentle layers that make this wine so easy to keep pouring.
About the Producer
Darling Cellars
Darling Cellars sits on the Cape West Coast, about seventy-five kilometres north of Cape Town, in a landscape that was dairy country long before anyone thought to plant vines. Founded in the mid-nineties as a privately owned cellar, it's run by a cooperative of around twenty shareholders farming roughly 1,300 hectares, a community venture in the truest sense. Nearly all their vineyards are unirrigated, with bush vines doing what they've always done: pushing roots deep into decomposed granite to find their own water. It's dry farming in its purest form, and it gives the wines a concentration and honesty that you simply can't manufacture. Under the direction of red wine specialist Pieter-Niel Rossouw, the cellar has built a quiet reputation for wines that overdeliver at every price point, genuine, terroir-driven, and refreshingly unpretentious.