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  • Weather

    16° C Broken clouds
  • Time

    02:06 AM
  • Wine average?

    93 Tb
  • Country Ranking?

    3
  • Region Ranking?

    1
  • Popularity ranking?

    219

History

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.

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Vineyards

The concept of “terroir” has a strong influence on the character of wine produced at Klein Constantia, with soil and climatic conditions ideal for producing grapes with ample fruit flavours. Situated between 70 metres and 343 metres above sea level, with a constant sea breeze above 150 metres, temperatures remain cool, preserving the fruit during ripening. With the ocean a mere 10 kilometres away, the wind plays an important factor, too, often stressing the vineyard and resulting in an increase in concentration and flavour in the fruit.

 

Part of South Africa’s Constantia Wine Route, our farm is situated on the eastern slopes and foothills of Constantiaberg, with 90% of the property being South to East facing. The higher slopes are some of the colder slopes in the Cape, with fewer sunlight hours and lower temperatures being ideal for preserving the acidity and pH of white varieties, most especially Sauvignon Blanc.

This cool climate also creates the ideal growing conditions for Muscat de Frontignan, used to make our natural sweet dessert wine, Vin de Constance. As the berries are able to ripen fully on the East to North facing slopes before raisining begins, they are able to produce raisined fruit of the very best concentration and flavour.

 

Our soils originate from 600 million year old granite, formed in a period of different climatic conditions to today. This well-drained, fertile decomposed granite with high clay content ensures good water retention. During the long, dry summers of the Cape, enough water will slowly drain back into the vineyards to ensure an effective leaf canopy and proper ripening of the fruit. The younger Table Mountain sandstone formations higher on the slopes do not influence the soils at all.

 

Klein Constantia’s soil types can be divided mainly between the deep fertile Oakleaf and the drier Glenrosa, with a saprolite subsoil.

Normally the Oakleaf soil consists of a dark organic rich topsoil of 30 to 40 centimetres, with a deep yellow or red neocutanic subsoil. Lower on the slopes near the valley floors, the Oakleaf changes to Tukulu soil. Closely related to Oakleaf, Tukulu is different only in that there are signs of short periods of wetness in the deeper soil profiles. Both soils can be red or yellow in colour.

 

Glenrosa soil is gravelly, has yellow topsoil, and with weakly weathered subsoil, it dries out fairly quickly. This soil form occurs on the higher slopes of the farm and is less fertile than the Oakleaf soils.

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Winemaking

Our Estate range elegantly expresses the unique terroir of the Constantia Valley, with a portfolio that includes one of the Cape’s top Sauvignon Blancs, a Riesling, a Méthode Cap Classique Brut, and an excellent Cabernet Sauvignon. In some years an Estate Shiraz and Chardonnay are also produced.

 

In 2005, a unique Sauvignon Blanc vineyard block called ‘The Perdeblok’ (Afrikaans for ‘horse’s block’) was bottled separately for the first time. This limited release Sauvignon Blanc, ‘Perdeblokke’, has been hailed as one of the best single vineyard white wines in South Africa.

Two wines of supreme quality, our Marlbrook range comprises a white blend of Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon called ‘Madame Marlbrook’, and a Bordeaux-style red blend, ‘Marlbrook’. This range perfectly expresses the elegance and sophistication for which Klein Constantia is known.

 

Our KC range is made with the modern consumer in mind. Sourcing quality grapes from many of the best Cape wine estates, and using innovative production techniques, these are approachable yet high quality wines. Always ready to drink on purchase, they become even better with an additional few years of bottle maturation.

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Inside information

Klein Constantia is custodian to some of the most historic vineyards in South Africa and, indeed, the world. The unique location, climate and soils of our estate call for the making of terroir-driven wines, and it is to this principle that we are deeply committed.

Simple winemaking techniques are used to extract the best from grapes grown in expertly nurtured vineyards in the aim of making consistently excellent wines. We strive to produce wines of high quality that express elements of elegance, minerality and balance.

 

As a BWI champion (Biodiversity in Wine Initiative) our vision is aligned with that of the World Wildlife Fund as we aim to unite conservation and agricultural development in a complementary, mutually beneficial manner. We continually strive to produce wines in more environmentally responsible and biodynamic ways.

Our wine range includes a top quality Estate range, a second label KC range, and our flagship revival of the famous Constantia sweet wine, Vin de Constance. We also produce limited volumes of Perdeblokke (a premium single vineyard Sauvignon Blanc), a Méthode Cap Classique Brut, and a Chardonnay.

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7 different wines with 30 vintages

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