Historia
Jan van Riebeeck first brought vines to the Cape. He and chief gardener, Hendrik Boom, produced the first wine in the Company Gardens, still an urban haven in the centre of present day Cape Town.
Simon Van der Stel, with permission to start his own farm, immediately ventured off to uncover the most favourable wine growing area in the Western Cape. Men were put to work, digging up baskets of soil from Table Bay to Muizenberg, each sample sent to the Castle for testing. Satisfied that the decomposed granite soil from the sheltered valley facing False Bay was the most favourable, he claimed it and called it Constantia. Van der Stel's "Constantia" estate measured 891 morgen - almost the entire valley. He built a fine house surrounded by gardens and orchards, and by 1709, at least 7 000 vines had been established, many of which were imported from Germany and elsewhere. These were mainly "steen-druif", the blue Muscadel of Catalonia, white Muscadel, and the kristaldruif.
Hendrik Cloete Snr buys part of the neglected Constantia estate. An experienced Stellenbosch wine farmer, Cloete is not deterred by the task of reviving the 224 morgen estate. In March 1778, he writes to a friend in Europe, "I am now personally in charge; the weather is better and I am convinced that the Constantia wine this year will be the best ever...I am writing this in the cellar. Kleintje is in the vineyard, I am beside the wine-press all day without a jacket and in thin trousers."
Napoleon Bonaparte, while in exile on the island of St Helena, enjoys the "les vins de Constance" daily, shipping 30 bottles over to the island every month. He even reportedly requests a glass on his deathbed, refusing all other food and drink offered to him.
Cloete dies. Constantia is further divided between his two sons, Jacob Pieter who inherits Groot (Big) Constantia and 22-year-old Johan Gerhard who settles on the upper portion of the estate, already under vine, to be known as Klein (Little) Constantia. Already planted with over 33 000 vines, Johan Gerhard Cloete builds a cellar for his first new vintage at the helm of the newly named Klein Constantia. He also sets about building a Cape Dutch style Manor House with a thatched roof, yellowwood beams and ceilings, and elegant sash windows.
November 30, 1865 Phylloxera disease arrives in the Cape, devastating the vineyard. The golden age of Constantia comes to an end. Constantia wine survives only in the poetry and prose of the 19th Century and in the illustrious cellars of Europe’s great wine collectors.
Klein Constantia is purchased by American heiress, Clara Hussey, and her husband, Abraham Lochner de Villiers, a Paarl milliner. The manor house is restored and upgraded, and witnesses some of the most extravagant parties in Cape Town history: Russian caviar was presented in barrels of ice, oysters and smoked salmon were served to guests dressed in flapper ensembles as orchestras played and peacocks strolled the lawns. Clara Hussey dies (Abraham died in 1930) and the estate is left to their nephew, Jan de Villiers, who had been sent to the University of California at Berkley to study viticulture.
Unable to make a success of the farm, Jan sells Klein Constantia to Ian Austin, a good friend of the Jooste family. Duggie Jooste buys Klein Constantia from Ian Austin and decides to revive the farm to its former winemaking glory with the help of Professor Chris Orferr of Stellenbosch University. Winemaker Ross Gower and architect Gawie Fagan begin work on the new cellar, which is finished just in time for the maiden vintage release in 1986.
Klein Constantia releases its first new vintages for commercial sale in over a century. The wines are widely celebrated and praised, most especially "Vin de Constance", a recreation of the original mythical Constantia sweet wine so beloved in the 18th and 19th Centuries. 1989, Duggie’s son, Lowell, slowly takes over the reigns of the estate. Lowell successfully steers Klein Constantia through two decades of awards, accolades and milestones.
January 1, 2011 Zdenek Bakala and Charles Harman purchase Klein Constantia from the Jooste family. Klein Constantia merges with Anwilka Vineyards and acquires two new shareholders, Bruno Prats and Hubert de Boüard.