Constantia's dessert wines; when Vin can really be Grand

Tuesday, 11 October, 2016
Dave March CWM
Legends are often a basis of truth with a healthy dollop of myth. The sweet wine of Constantia is no exception.

Wine books and educational resources around the world have shrouded the luscious dessert wine from the vineyards of Constantia with the legend of the ‘Vin de Constance’, the wine of Napoleon. Hugh Johnson writes, ‘Constantia was bought by European courts in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries in preference to Y’quem, Tokay and Madeira’.

The truth, though, needs some clarification.

There most certainly was a naturally sweet unfortified wine, based on Muscat, originating from Constantia which gained considerable reputation among nobility around the world. The wine as requested by Napoleon in particular was ‘wine from Constance’. Somewhere along the line this has emerged as ‘Vin de Constance’.

Actually, there are now two dessert wines from Constantia and todays Vin de Constance is not the one that Napoleon et al were drinking – though it may be from the same terroir.

In fact, Vin de Constance has only been produced since 1986 and by Klein Constantia, part of the original estate which was sub-divided in 1823. A remarkable wine in its own right and totally gorgeous, ‘Vin’ has been a huge success in its thirty years and deserves its status, but it is, according to Klein’s website, ‘a recreation of the original mythical Constantia sweet wine’. Klein Constantia was part of Simon van der Stel’s original homestead and todays Vin de Constance an attempt to re-create the wine as KC says, ‘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’.

Further confusion?  Klein Constantia herald the VdC as the true descendant, ‘now, over a century after its disappearance, comes the renaissance – Vin de Constance – made in the style of the old Constantia, from vineyards which once produced this legendary wine’. Part of the land maybe, but not the vines.

Also, Klein’s VdC was not being produced at the time they refer to on their website in a Baudelaire poem of 1856 and Charles Dicken’s ‘Edwin Drood’ (1859) in which the Constantia sweet wine is mentioned – the wine mentioned came from Groot yet Klein Constantia make mention of it inferring it came from them?

No, the wine supped copiously by the likes of Frederick the Great of Prussia and Jane Austen before 1817 which fortified the weak and restored the sick to health, was a wine from Groot Constantia, the wine we now know as ‘Grand Constance’. It is known that King Louis Phillipe’s of France favourite tipple in the 1830’s was supplied from Groot Constantia.

Producing wine since 1685, Groot Constantia make this distinction clear at their tasting room; ‘Napoleon’s aid, Immanuel de la Casse, dealt with the Cloete’s of Groot Constantia when he purchased Napoleon’s wine. These wines were produced in the Cloete Cellar directly behind the Groot Constantia Manor house. It is known that Groot Constantia used the French translation ‘Grand Constance’ on its labels in addition to the normal ‘Groot Constantia’ reference.

This is confirmed by their records and by a recent article in Decanter.com which reported, ‘In a rare sale, a bottle of Grand Constance 1821 (this is in stark contrast to the oldest vintage of Vin de Constance of 1986) was auctioned online by Catawiki recently.

Groot Constantia was determined to enter the auction and ended up securing the winning bid, of £1,318 (cR25,000). Says winemaker Boela Gerber, ‘We are happy to report that our bid was successful, (and) the bottle of 1821 Grand Constance is coming home.’

There are fewer than 12 bottles of the 1821 Grand Constance left anywhere. It was the year Napoleon died, which must have upset Constantia as his order was for 30 bottles a month while in exile on St Helena.

Manager of the Groot Constantia Estate, Jean Naude says, ‘We have also bought another bottle of the 1821 vintage that has the crown of Napoleon imbedded in the wax seal of the cork. These wines will have a special display in the Cloete Cellar, where they were originally made nearly 2 centuries ago’. Tantalisingly, though, in 2004 a fragment of glass with an inscription ‘Constantia Wyn’ was retrieved from the shipwrecked ‘Severn’ supply ship which sank in 1774. One wonders if there are more bottles of 240 year old Grand Constance lying on the sea bed somewhere. This gives a whole new meaning to ‘liquid history’.

I am indebted to the work of Boela, Jean and Elza Gillman for putting me straight about this!

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Groot Constantia Grand Constance 1821 (Picture: Decanter.com)
Groot Constantia Grand Constance 1821 (Picture: Decanter.com)

Klein Constantia Vin de Constance 2013
Klein Constantia Vin de Constance 2013

Groot Constantia
Groot Constantia

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