Historic South African wine property Klein Constantia is marking its 340th anniversary with a restricted, long-aged bottling of its emblematic Vin de Constance candy wine from the 2010 classic.
Sourced from a harvest not beforehand earmarked for launch, the 2010 version was matured in cask for almost 15 years. Some 4,500 bottles shall be launched globally, with a UK RRP of £140 per 50cl bottle.
Scroll down for tasting notes and scores for 3 vintages of Klein Constantia’s Vin de Constance
It’s the most recent chapter within the story of one of many world’s most historic wine estates, based in 1685 by the primary Governor of the Cape, Simon van der Stel. He despatched soil samples from the world to Europe for evaluation earlier than fixing on the Constantia Valley, south of Desk Mountain, as the perfect spot to plant vines.
Since then, Constantia’s historical past has been chequered: lauded by Jane Austen, Charles Baudelaire and Charles Dickens, beloved by Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and Napoleon Bonaparte, however declining into chapter 11 within the 1870s, earlier than resurrection with the discharge of the primary Vin de Constance in over a century in 1990.
Klein Constantia was acquired by Czech-American investor Zdenĕk Bakala and UK businessman Charles Harman in 2011, with the comparatively inexperienced Matt Day put in as head winemaker. Day was given the 2012 classic to show his mettle or ‘discover the door’, and has been chargeable for the property’s wines ever since.
‘The objective of Vin de Constance is to create a candy wine that’s not candy,’ mentioned Day. ‘Sugar varieties the flavour, however not sucrosity, so it goes with any a part of the meal. It shouldn’t be loved on “events”, however much more typically than that. And it shouldn’t be put in a cellar and forgotten about.’
Muscat de Frontignan is essential to Vin de Constance, due to its resistance to botrytis – this isn’t a noble rot-focused candy wine, however one the place the fermentation stops naturally, ideally at about 165g/litre residual sugar and 14-14.5% abv, with a pH of three.65-3.7.
Vin de Constance 2010 was handed over in 2013/14 as a result of it ‘simply didn’t tick all of the bins’, mentioned Day – coming from a 12 months when manufacturing was lower by about 90% because the vines went into ‘chaos mode’ following a sudden change to sustainable manufacturing. The wine was rediscovered within the Klein Constantia cellars final 12 months and bottled in November.
‘We had been pressured right into a manner of creating Vin de Constance that wasn’t regular,’ Day mentioned. ‘We fermented on skins [for two weeks] for the primary time and did a lot of punchdowns, extracting a lot of flavour and tannin. It’s very daring, very massive… a very totally different however beautiful classic.’
Three vintages of Klein Constantia’s Vin de Constance
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