“Constantia was bought by European courts in the early 19th century in preference to Yquem, Tokay, Madeira...” Kings vied for possession of this wine. Louis Philippe sent emissaries from France to fetch it, Napoleon drank it on the island of St Helena, finding solace in his lonely exile, Frederick the Great and Bismarck ordered it and in England the Prime Minister sent Constantia to Buckingham Palace for the King.
VIN DE CONSTANCE - some history...
In the 18th and 19th centuries "the sweet luscious and excellent wine of Constantia" was recognised as one of the great wines of the world.
The story of this legendary wine began in 1685 with Simon van der Stel, Governor of the Cape of Good Hope. A dynamic, energetic man, he was the first to realise that the small colony was not merely a halfway house, but a place of real significance.
“From these Elysian fields used to come one of the very greatest wines in the world - the legendary Constantia,” writes Hugh Johnson, “Constantia was bought by European courts in the early 19th century in preference to Yquem, Tokay, Madeira...” Kings vied for possession of this wine. Louis Philippe sent emissaries from France to fetch it, Napoleon drank it on the island of St Helena, finding solace in his lonely exile, Frederick the Great and Bismarck ordered it and in England the Prime Minister - who had sampled it with much delight at Downing Street - made sure that consignments from the Cape were delivered to Buckingham Palace for the King.
"The sweet, luscious and excellent wine called Constantia" soon became part of the literature of the 19th century. In Edwin Drood Charles Dickens tells of "...the support embodied in a glass of Constantia and a home-made biscuit", while Jane Austen recommends that her forsaken heroine try a little Constantia for "...its healing powers on a disappointed heart". While German poet Klopstock devotes an entire ode to the pleasures of this wine, Baudelaire transforms it into a sensuous image for his great brooding poem Les Fleurs du mal.
Towards the end of the 19th century the dreaded disease phylloxera arrived at the Cape, causing devastation in the vineyards and bankruptcy amongst winemaking families. Groot Constantia was sold to the Government as an experimental wine farm and the Cloetes moved away. "The old order changeth, yielding place to new", and with it went the famous sweet Constantia wines which had brought delight and pleasure the world over. The legend lived on however, immortalised in poetry and prose, and still vibrantly alive in many old bottles which lay forgotten in the cellars of Europe's great wine collectors.
Since 1980 Klein Constantia has been redeveloped and everyone involved has seen it as a challenge, almost a mission, to bring back the famous wine, for the farm had been part of Simon van der Stel's estate. Early records were studied and careful selection made from vines which in all likelihood came from the original stock used in Constantia 300 years ago.
Now, a century after its disappearance, comes the renaissance - Vin de Constance - made in the style of the old Constantia, from vineyards which one produced this legendary wine.
November 2008
