While we were in Northern California for the introduction of our new Fall Collection, we had the good fortune of meeting Thomas Darling. Thomas and his wife, Ashley, founded Darling Wines in 2017 after moving to California the year before as part of a bold move to pursue winemaking.
With no deep family roots in the uber-competitive wine industry, the Darlings built their business from the ground up to be a family affair, selecting flawless grapes sourced from independent, family-owned growers committed to organic and biodynamic farming methods. “Really what I'm trying to do is source and harvest really well cared for organic grapes and then handle them very minimally in the winery itself to try and produce the most transparent expression of the variety, the vintage, and the vineyard each year.”
Thomas’s philosophy revolves around “minimal intervention” production using native yeasts and foot-treading the grapes—“I view the way that we make wine kind of like how they built golf courses before we had modern machinery and land moving equipment,” Thomas says—while avoiding new oak barrels so his wines remain fresh, aromatic, and light. Darling wines are shaped by the windswept, fog-prone microclimates of the Sonoma Coast and the area inland and extending southward to the Marin County line, rather than the hot, sunny valley floors favored by other winemakers.
Thomas’s instincts proved on the mark: His debut 2018 vintage was a resounding success, earning a coveted spot on the wine list at The French Laundry, Thomas Keller’s three-Michelin-starred restaurant in Yountville. Darling puts his successes into perspective: “Every time you open a bottle of wine, you're connecting with a place, you're connecting with the people who farmed it, the vintage, the weather that year, and so much more. People are connecting less and I think that wine is an incredible vehicle for connection in so many ways, whether that is to history, time, place, food, people, and it really is an amazing combo for that.”
Cheers to good company. For more information on Darling Wines visit darlingwines.com or follow them @darlingwines on Instagram.
