For Sale (price neg.): Emotional Ownership of Groot Constantia

Tuesday, 28 October, 2008
Neil Pendock
Dr. Ernest Messina, chairperson of the Groot Constantia Trust, makes an unlikely estate agent. Yet last week he was offering "emotional ownership" of that jewel in the national wine crown, Groot Constantia, at a dinner held in the historic herenhuis. Having passed from Governor Simon van der Stel through generations of Cloetes, the iconic farm is now owned by a Section 21 company (which has no shareholders).
As any estate agent will confirm, when valuing property, the three most important factors are position, position and position. Which Groot Constantia has by the cellar full, as well as history galore. While the first vintage was made by Jan van Riebeeck from grapes grown in the Company garden in Cape Town 349 years ago, the Constantia Valley can justly claim to be the cradle of SA wine as it was certainly home to the first wine brand.

Messina noted "Groot Constantia is one of the ten oldest trademarks in the world"- a theme extended by Rupert who remarked that Van der Stel's employers, the Dutch East India Company (VOC), was also the world's first limited liability company. Back then it was brave little ships of the VOC that battled storms, sea monsters and the very real possibility of falling off the edge of the flat earth, to advance global commerce. As a spin-off, they founded SA as a revictualing stop en route to the spicy riches of the East and such culinary treats as nasi goreng.

Today that proud trading tradition is carried on by the Jumbo jets and airbuses of KLM, so perhaps emotional ownership of Groot Constantia should also be offered to the airline, along with a proposal they only serve Constantia wines on their international network next February, to mark the 350 birthday of SA wine. The current favourable exchange rate between the rand and the Euro will also appeal to the financially cautious Dutch, where menus all start with "borrow two eggs..."

And while the VOC trademark may now be owned by Australian Michael Wright - who also owns Voyager Estate in Margaret River (complete with its own mini Cape Dutch herenhuis, yellowwood armoires and riempies stoele) - perhaps the most appropriate successor to the erstwhile directors of the VOC (the Here XVII) would be Willem - Alexander, Prince of Orange and his glamorous wife, Argentina-born Princess Máxima. They'd certainly be more fun at a birthday dinner at the Groot Constantia langtafel as Wright doesn't drink.

Australian connections to Groot Constantia continue thick and fast when you note that the farm was the source of the first vines imported into Australia. Which could explain the notable success of Aussie wine. The bounty of Groot Constantia also extends to the rest of the SA industry as Rupert noted the farm was source of American rootstock after phylloxera devastated the national vineyard at the end of the 19th century.

There is no shortage of Constantia to serve at a birthday party for SA wine. The 2008 vintage Sauvignon Blanc of winemaker Boela Gerber was a big hit with diners, with Rupert noting "I don't normally drink Sauvignon Blanc unless I have two packets of Rennies handy." Even better was the 2006 vintage Gouverneur's Chardonnay, recently voted one of the top ten Chardonnays in the world at the Chardonnay du Monde Competition in Burgundy, an appellation with a fair reputation for the stuff.

As for reds, the spicy Shiraz would have met with the approval of a salty VOC captain while the Gouverneur's Reserve Bordeaux-style blend would have passed muster with any Huguenot. A sweet red successor to the wines once prized so highly in European courts and a Port rounded off an impressive vinous showcase with the only omission Pinotage. But then as GM Jean Naudé noted, "our volumes are tiny."

Pinotage is certainly popular with the Dutch as earlier in the day I was a guest at a Chef's Lunch in Devon Valley organized by Amsterdam-based Jos van Krimpen whose company Exclusive Culitravel offers gourmet tours to SA. Alongside Craig Cormack's crown roasted quail with roasted beetroot, honey and cumin ice cream, sommelier Mia Martensson served an impressive line-up of Pinotages: 2001 Hidden Valley CWG, 1997 Paradyskloof, 1989 Kanonkop and 1972 Simonsig. All in fine form, all exquisite.

Quoting the Bushmills whiskey ad, Gerber noted "you don't get to be the best by being the oldest. But you do get to be the oldest by being the best." Which should win a WOSA award for reversing the tables as whisky is notorious for hijacking wine special occasions - Johnnie Walker grabbing the back cover of the 10th anniversary edition of WINE magazine, whisky given away to guests at the SA Airways Wine Awards. I'm half expecting the February celebrations of Van Riebeeck's first vintage to be sponsored by J&B. Thanking Rupert for his speech, Professor Jatti Bredekamp, CEO of Iziko Museums, made the sobering point that the dinner also marked the 200th anniversary of the largest slave revolt in the Cape - an invisible history that will require substantial social archeology to unearth. But a dig worth pursuing as the terroir on which the wines of Groot Constantia depend is far more than decomposed Table Mountain granite and sandstone. Of the Soil, Climate, Aspect and Man - the SCAM (or terroir, as it is known in French) so beloved of oenophiles, the greatest of these (to paraphrase St. Paul) is man.

Caption:
Left to right: Johann Rupert, Gary May (Vice Chairman), Mayor Helen Zille, Dr Ernest Messina (Chairman), Jean Naudé (CEO), Boela Gerber (Winemaker).

WineLand

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