Region – Cape Town, South Africa.
Soil – Decomposed Granite Soil.
Vin de Constance a sweet luscious and excellent wine made from 100% Muscat de Frontignan has 330 years of history of wine-making and over the years it has developed a reputation which made it what it is now. It all began in 1685 when the 10th commander of Ducth India company (VOC) Simon van der Steel was granted his own land to farm and to find out a suitable place for vine growing.
Van Der Steel named his farm as Constantia it is believed that the name came from after the VOC ship “Constantia”. As well it is said that Constantia came from the Latin word for Constancy and Steadfastness, the attributes which were respected by Van der Steel greatly.
In 1716, right after the death of Van Der Steel an auction was held and both the vineyard Groot Constantia and Klein Constantia were sold to two different owners. Constantia found its mark on the international map when King Louis Philippe sent his emissaries to fetch it from the Cape of good hope, as well it is believed Napoleon spent his exile getting drunk with the Vin de Constance on the Island of St.Helena.
The farm hit incredibly hard times due to the Phylloxera and went into a deep dormancy. Only Dougie Jooste could wake it up in 1979 when he bought the farm. Soon after Jooste came in, a modern Vin de Constance was released in 1986. The wine had to face several challenges as the palates of the consumers were already moved from sweet to dry wines. But the quality of the wine never diminished, since 1986 it regularly appears on the list of World’s Top wines.
Tasting Notes: Deep, yellow-gold in color, with marked viscosity. Intense and complex nose of dried apricot, tangerine and Muscat. Luscious, concentrated, sweet fruit flavors on the palate are balanced by fine acidity, and followed by a very long, flavorful finish.