Such was his respect and reverence for their wines, Napoleon forced his troops to salute the vines of Gevrey-Chambertin as they marched through Burgundy, en route to a bit of strenuous French dictatorial conquering, violent mayhem and flashy blood-letting. Times are more peaceful now, thankfully, but if there are any South African vineyards worthy of a salute, a courteous nod or even a matey “howzit!”-thumbs-up, these are indeed the winelands of Constantia.
For sure, this is where the Cape wine industry began 337 years back when a foresighted Dutch fellow named Simon van der Stel picked Constantia as a pretty good place for planting vines and making wine. And with the sweet and other wines from the region being all the rage in Europe during the 1700s and 1800s – including a desired tipple of aforementioned Napoleon Bonaparte – Constantia has always given good story. Even in the slower, unimaginative days of the South African wine industry and the destructive period of political sanctions on Cape wine, Constantia always stood true, recognised all over the civilized world of wine as a vinous beacon, a point of reference from the African south.
The nod that should be reserved for Constantia, however, is the region’s current position as the Mothership of Cape Wine. For one, the true magnificence of its restored historical buildings blending into mountain-side vineyards creating an aesthetic presence unrivalled by any other wine region in the world. And this, a part of the city of Cape Town, one of the leading brands in international tourism.
Secondly, the ethos of the owners of these wine properties in Constantia should be approached with respect. It is their collective regard for and appreciation of this special part of the wine world that has allowed Constantia to be where it is today, a slice of rural wineland splendour next to a burgeoning metropolis.
And then, of course, there are the wines. While regional history is splendidly honoured through the sweet wines that made this region famous, mainly through Klein Constantia’s Vin de Constance and Grand Constance from Groot Constantia, as an area Constantia is today making some of the finest table wines in the Cape’s diverse quality offering.
There are many examples, from Chardonnay to Shiraz, Pinotage to red Bordeaux-style blends, but it is what Constantia is doing with Sauvignon Blanc that, to my mind, is currently the region’s greatest contribution to Brand South Africa. Sauvignon Blanc is one of the grape varieties that wine consumers world-wide have fallen in love with over the past 30 years. There is a huge international market for it, and at flush price-levels to boot. And with its sterling efforts in producing quality premium Sauvignon Blanc in such a glorious well-known and historical important region of the Cape, Constantia is helping to create a much-needed international awareness of South Africa as a great wine-producing country. For despite the breathless and gushing missives from international wine critics and importers, as far as South Africa’s position in the world’s premium wine market is concerned, we just ain’t there yet. And with 44% of the country’s total production being wine made from Colombar and Chenin Blanc grapes, strangers to the international fine wine market, we ain’t going to get there soon.
Klein Constantia is the name that led the way in Constantia’s Sauvignon Blanc venture, having doggedly stuck to the focus on this wine since first planting the variety on its east to south-east facing slopes 40 years back. Then again, when your patch of earth is so enchantingly suited to Sauvignon Blanc, why mess with a winning formula?
A few weeks back I was – after my clipped salute to the region’s vines – shoved onto an open-deck Land Rover to be driven around the vines of Klein Constantia, an opportunity that reaffirmed my view that this is God’s country for wine and Christ’s land for Sauvignon Blanc.
Being part of the Table Mountain group, the soils are decomposed granite and Table Mountain sandstone, with some patches of granite, visceral shards of sharp. Aspect is steep, climbing to 360m above the level of the sea, which lies visible to the east where the Atlantic Ocean of False Bay shimmers moodily. This is the view the vineyards have. And as any blue-blooded Capetonian knows, the south-easterly breeze blows in various degree of intensity for at least eight months of the year, meaning that the vineyards are exposed to this raw maritime air-flow during various stages of their growth-cycle.
In winter, the north-western gales blow into the mountain behind the vines, building up pools of damp wet air before sending buckets of rain onto the Klein Constantia slopes – over 800mm of precipitation per year. The average used to be over 1 000mm, but such is the climes of the times.
Sauvignon Blanc, loves this and it loves it all. And it pulls through to the wines.
In celebratory mood to introduce the 2021 Estate Sauvignon Blanc, the Klein Constantia team had hauled out a couple of older wines of the same variety. There was a 1997 as well as a wine from the 2010 vintage presented alongside the latest 2021 offering made by current cellarmaster Matthew Day.
I always appreciate the opportunity to taste white wines at levels of maturity, as long as they are still alive and not, as is too often the case, in a mummified state of oddness without the semblance of a heart-beat.
The 1997 Klein Constantia Sauvignon Blanc, made by the late Ross Gower who pioneered the variety in this region, was still very much strutting its stuff, much like Ross was known to do in his time. Sauvignon Blanc tends to completely change its personality over the years as the aromatic thiol elements that give the variety its engaging youthful character fall by the way-side. As the 1997 Sauvignon Blanc wine shows, fruit and flowers wither, replaced by a stern and brooding seriousness built on chipped rock, meadow grass and wet barnacle, all flowing through the icy veins of a bracing wine that tastes of cold. The one fruity element is the sliver of grape-fruit, an aspect I’ll get back to later.
Klein Constantia Sauvignon Blanc 2010 is still a vivacious number with the kind of flirtatiousness that would get one drawn, quartered and hung in the days of Simon van der Stel. The wine has a beautiful length that captivates from attack to finish, a combination of salt-lick, gooseberry, green-fig before they are preserved and a slight note of white asparagus poached in sea-water, as is the custom in Brittany, France. A really solid white wine with presence, this wine is to be sipped and pondered over instead of downing through the hatch as is too often the case with cold Sauvignon Blanc. (This wine was made by Adam Mason.)