Groot Constantia - the great grandmother of wine production

Grande Dame

The great-grandmother of wine production has not lost her charm and elegance of the olden days, finds Jeanri-Tine van Zyl.

There is something undeniably romantic about the Cape Town suburb of Constantia, with its oak-shaded lanes leading to Manderley-type mansions, trotting horses and Bentley drivers. It is also home to some of the Cape's oldest and most highly regarded wine properties, the valley having some or other connotations for most local wine lovers - even if these are brought on simply by the nostalgia of childhood visits.

One of the Cape's Oldest Wine Cellars, Groot Constantia

 

Traditionally, a trip to Cape Town from upcountry does not suffice without tasting wines at Constantia and there are surely many who can recall running after squirrels on Groot Constantia's lawns as kids waiting for mommy and daddy to conclude their wine tasting...

Even today, with wine farms abounding, the Constantia wine route is still marketed as one of the main tourist destinations in South Africa. Within this demarcation, no name is more revered than Groot Constantia Estate - the great-grandmother of wine production in South Africa. And true to granny form this farm has many tales to tell, her history involving the demands of royals, the praise of authors and bragging accounts of socialites.

But what has become of the estate today? Is Groot Constantia merely mighty in historical recount, or is there still something left of the old charm, the grace and elegance that once made it world famous?

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

According to Burman's Wine of Constantia (Human & Rousseau, 1979) Constantia was originally granted to Cape Governor Simon van der Stel in 1685 by an ill (and probably dying) Rijklof von Goens (the younger), towards whom an opportunistic Van der Stel confided in wanting to live outside the Cape Castle. On the grounds of his agricultural expertise, Van der Stel was recommended by Goens to the managing Here XVII as being a suitable candidate for the grant to the estate. Van der Stel later contrived to having even more hectares of land granted to him - so much so that in 1695 he owned almost the whole of the Peninsula - approximately 8 500 hectares in total! The original land-grabber.

An ambitious man on all fronts, Van der Stel was also a bit of a philanderer - the name Constantia was originally thought to be that of his absent wife, which was refuted by later research revealing her name to be Johanna Jacoba. Instead, some of the suggestions were that Constantia could have been an indirect means to slander the governor who had been linked with various ladies at the Cape; and was anything but constant in his aff ections for the opposite sex.

It was only when Van der Stel died in 1712 that Constantia was divided into the smaller farms Groot Constantia, Klein Constantia and Bergvliet. The latter being further subdivided of which a portion formed Buitenverwachting. And today, Groot Constantia, in contradiction to its name, is actually one of the smaller producers in the Constantia ward, according to winemaker Boela Gerber.

THE PEOPLE'S FARM

"This farm belongs to the people of South Africa," says Jean Naudé, general manager at Groot Constantia since 2002. A most apt statement, as no other single wine farm encapsulates so much of South Africa's history as this particular estate. Politically, culturally and architecturally, Groot Constantia is indeed, as Naudé puts it, "a product of the rainbow nation". Young Gerber agrees. He joined the farm in 2001 after having been an understudy to Vergelegen's Andre van Rensburg at Stellenzicht and having completed a stint at Rickety Bridge in Franschhoek.

Gerber took over from Bob de Villiers, and in following years he has grown a reputation for readily lending a hand when "distressed" people seek help at the farm. "There once was a man who experienced some gastro problems (I won't go into detail), who then, on someone else's advice, drank yeast to alleviate the symptoms. Subsequently he was pulled off the road for drunk driving. He then came to the farm to seek my help. He asked me to testify that the combination of yeast and fruit juice can lead to symptoms similar to being drunk - it can also up the ‘alcohol level' in your bloodstream. I was ready to help, but then asked just how high his alcohol level was - it was 0.28! It was a lost case (with allowed alcohol levels being 0.05 when driving), and I therefore decided not to get involved," laughs Gerber over a glass of Gouverneurs Chardonnay 2007 during lunch at the cosy Jonkershuis.

He relates similar stories and finally adds: "People treat this (Groot Constantia) like their farm, which it is."

GOOD YEARS AND BAD

Not too much is said of Simon van der Stel's lineage, although some articles allude to his mother being a freed slave from India, whilst his father was in the service of the Dutch East India Company in Mauritius. With his passing in 1712 the farm was bought by Captain Oloff Bergh who bequeathed it to his wife Anna de Koningh, herself a daughter of a freed slave.

Subsequently the farm passed to various owners - the Cloete years between 1778 and 1885 being celebrated as a golden era. During this time, the famous Constantia sweet wines were enjoyed and praised by the fortunate and the famed. Jane Austen immortalised Constantia's wines in paragraphs in Sense and Sensibility, and Napoleon had a well-known aff ection for these wines as well. Visits to the farm are also noted in socialite Lady Anne Barnard's journals...

Although the Vin de Constance that received this praise is now most closely associated with Klein Constantia, these original Constantia wines were all produced at Groot Constantia.

"In 2004 a bottle-top bearing the Constantia crest was found in Delaware, America. The odd shape of the bottle and testing dated it to the 1770s - again confirming the Constantia wines' worldwide enjoyment," relays Naudé proudly.

After the Cloete reign, the estate was sold to the Cape Government, and in following years the quality of the wine proved to be dismal, worsened by the phylloxera epidemic that swept the Constantia valley (and the rest of the Cape) in 1898 and 1899. The answer was to graft vines on American rootstock, and thanks to this Constantia survived.

Today, the estate still has its problems in the vineyards, as viticulturist Callie Bröcker points out during a drive through the vineyards. It is autumn, which means leafroll literally stands out like a red flag. "There is no such thing as a virus-free vineyard," Bröcker says forcefully. "I'm bemused by those who claim to have virus free vineyards," he says with a shake of his head. "That might be the case now, but see what happens in three years' time; leafroll is too easily transmitted."

Due to this virus a couple of blocks have been uprooted on the estate ("a necessary precaution"). The oldest vines on the farm are currently the 15 year-old Sauvignon Blanc vines from which the Gouverneurs Sauvignon Blanc is produced. These vines, to Bröcker's frustration, yield a mere 3½ tons per hectare - to which he expresses the classic war between viticulturist and winemaker: "I farmed with vegetables before I joined the farm (in 1997), I am used to wanting a big production, but winemakers use other methods (to make a good wine)." He adds that the 2009 harvest showed a good compromise - "it is the best in 13 years, both in yield and quality".

Other blocks include Chardonnay, Semillon, Merlot, Pinotage, Cabernet Sauvignon and Shiraz, the latter highly decorated in recent times - the Gourveneurs 2006 rated 4½ Stars in WINE magazine as well as getting gold at the 2008 Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show.

And the leafroll? Bröcker maintains that for the past fi ve years the farm has been applying natural disease control on the vines and that it has been showing amazing results. One of these methods includes shipping in 10 000 ladybirds from Robertson. At 95c per bug, it is an investment that "you do not want to kill with pesticide".

GROOT CONSTANTIA TODAY

Questions over ownership reached a climax in the years of turmoil leading up to 1994. Finally, in 1993 the estate was converted into a section 21 company under the supervision of the Groot Constantia Trust; and subsequently Groot Constantia has been commercially driven with the goal of preserving it as a "cultural, historic monument". "We are independent" says Naudé during a tasting of Constantia's wines, "There are no hassles with state bureaucracy, because, since 1993 the farm does not cost the state a cent." Unlike the years leading up to 1993.

"For 100 years the farm was running at a loss to the government, but the improvement since 1993 has been massive," Naudé maintains. Surely the fact that sanctions were lifted and the farm was allowed to export again in the early '90s contributes to the success? Naudé concedes this - but, nevertheless, the product needs to be one that can be exported and people want to drink: "If you produce mediocre bottles of wine, then you waste Groot Constantia's history." Ultimately the farm remains a means to build the image of South African wines abroad, and locally.

This must put quite a bit of pressure on the winemaker, but Gerber is not letting on. "When I joined the estate almost 10 years ago, a lot of changes were taking place, and with these changes came the ‘new' wines; there is no ‘Boela-style' and ‘Constantia-style'. Constantia wines have a reputation for being elegant - and that is what I aim to maintain."

"I am not a cellar-artist," Gerber says modestly, "but I do like to experiment a bit [some wild yeast and open tank fermentation]. Overall I try to maintain the same recipe from one year to the next; if it works, it works. Don't stop a good thing." He won the title of Diners Club International Young Winemaker of the Year in 2002 for the Groot Constantia Merlot 2001, and his wines seem to win more and more awards every year; clearly he's doing something right.

The top-end Gouverneurs range adds complexity (and exclusivity) to the list of elegant wines. The acclaimed Gouverneurs Shiraz 2006, for instance, sells for the not insignificant amount of R190 a bottle. Gerber elaborates: "It was the product of barrel selection. Although you can wait to drink it in five to eight years, it offers a great deal of complexity now. The international notion to pick riper and to use newer barrels has resulted in wines that can, and should, be enjoyed earlier."

This particular wine was aged in 100% French oak. "It is not a Monday or Tuesday wine, it is an end of the month or Christmas wine," Gerber adds. However, the ideal remains for the broad spectrum of wines to be affordable to most people.

No special higher priced wine in celebration of South Africa's 350 years of winemaking? Only a sweet wine in a bottle shaped in the "historic style". A high priced wine might "boost the ego but it won't make the wine any better", to which Naudé adds that grandma is "too genuine for gimmicks".