Klein Constantia

Klein Constantia

The 18th century sweet wines of Constantia were world renowned. After acquiring Klein Constantia in 1980, the Joostes have toiled tirelessly to revive this style. Christian Eedes reports.

 

It has entered South African winemaking mythology that the sweet wines of the Constantia district were among the most highly regarded in the capitals of Europe during the 18th and early 19th centuries.

Towards the end of the 19th century however the dreaded root-eating aphid, phylloxera, arrived in the Cape, causing devastation in the vineyards and bankruptcy amongst winemaking families. The pre-eminence of Constantia's sweet wines had temporarily come to an end.

Leap forward to 1980, when Duggie Jooste acquired Klein Constantia, which had been part of the original property settled by Governor Simon van der Stel of the Dutch East India Company after his arrival in the Cape in 1679.

Klein Constantia had fallen into almost complete ruin but Jooste was well positioned to bring about its renewal. He had a while earlier merged the family liquor company with the major producer-wholesaler of the time, namely Stellenbosch Farmers' Winery and therefore had access to the best viticultural and oenological thinking around.

With Ernst le Roux, chief viticulturist at Nederburg, and Chris Orffer, Professor of Viticulture at the University of Stellenbosch acting as consultants, the first plantings commenced in 1982. Ross Gower joined as winemaker in 1984, and the first vintage of Klein Constantia wines in the modern era was completed in 1986.
Efforts to recreate the great natural sweet wines of history began immediately, although these were initially kept secret. As Lowell Jooste, son of Duggie and current managing director of the business relates, "we didn't really know what we were getting into".

Records concerning the original wines were far from comprehensive, requiring some shrewd speculation. Jooste gives plenty of credit to Prof Orffer on this score: the academic had spent decades researching the old Constantia wines and was therefore able to provide a "blueprint" of how a modern version might be fashioned.

Muscat de Frontignan was the variety thought most likely to have featured previously and this was sourced from blocks that Jooste says "quite feasibly" came from vineyards descended from the vineyards that originally produced Constantia. "There are no records of Muscat being imported subsequently."

One small block was planted in 1982 and then another in 1983 and both are still in use today. "There are no plans to pull these out. They just keep going and going," says Jooste. As demand grew over time, plantings were increased and now the farm has around 8ha of Muscat out of a total of 75ha under vineyard.

Winemaker Adam Mason (incumbent since July 2003) comments that ripeness is the "most crucial part" of producing Vin de Constance. Up to 50% of the crop is reduced allowing the remaining grapes to reach high sugars; harvest takes place at the end of March or the beginning of April, and just before this, workers remove leaves from the fruiting zone to ensure that the already ripe grapes begin to shrivel and raisin in the sun, further concentrating flavour and sugar.

Mason reveals that picking is done on "gut feel" as bunches typically exhibit both full and shrivelled grapes making it impossible to get a representative sample of juice for analysis. Picking is done at no less than 40° Balling (a measure of sugar by weight).

The influence of botrytis on Vin de Constance is negligible and it is classified as a Natural Sweet wine. Mason reports that noble rot usually struggles to manifest itself on Klein Constantia, although some vintages show more of this character than others.

Jooste points out that making Vin de Constance as a Natural Sweet is more true to the original: botrytis was not recorded in the Cape until the beginning of the 20th century, probably after being imported from Europe and it is therefore fair to assume that the original sweet wines of the area were free of the fungus.

Concerning how the wine is treated in the cellar, Jooste relates that Orffer was convinced that historically the grapes for Constantia sweet wines were foot-trodden, and originally advised that the Maties Rag Queen and her princesses would have been the best candidates to re-institute the practice!
Nowadays the juice is left on the skins for "a couple of days" after crushing and inoculation. Mason believes that this helps break the skins down, making them much more giving when it comes to pressing. Fermentation is completed in tank, where the wine stays for "a year or two" before going into old wood for an additional two years. "This makes the wine smoother, softer and more mellow which is what the wine is all about," he explains.

The first to taste the 1986 maiden vintage of Vin de Constance were a few lucky members of the wine media who received it as a 1990 Christmas present. The only time this wine ever went on sale was at the 2005 Nederburg auction, three 6-bottle cases fetching a total value of R31 000, an average of over R1 720 a bottle. The current 2001 vintage sells for R245 a bottle from the farm.

Though Klein Constantia's red wines are not unaccomplished, the farm is today most acclaimed for its white wines, especially Sauvignon Blanc and this variety typically makes up 50% of the 500 to 550 tons a year that the cellar crushes. As to where Vin de Constance fits in, it is very much one of the farm's flagships even though it normally amounts to no more than 2 500 cases (12 x 500ml) and is therefore a relatively small part of total production. "Over the years, we've worked out what our strengths are viticulturally and we'd ideally like to focus on as few wines as possible," says Jooste.

Jooste is enormously proud of the fact that the sweet wines of the 18th century were known by the region that they came from, the producers responsible not seeking to pass them off as originating from any of the world's other great sweet wine producing areas such as Sauternes or Madeira. "Constantia was the first intellectual property from the Southern Hemisphere," as he puts it.

To this day the suburb of Tokai lies alongside Constantia, causing Jooste to speculate that it acquired its name at some point in the past from more timid farmers who sought to emulate the great sweet wines of Tokaji in Hungary.

It transpires that some of Klein Constantia's esteemed neighbors like Buitenverwachting and Groot Constantia have recently begun experimenting with wines in a similar vein.

But owner and winemaker are unperturbed by this. "Should Constantia hang its hat on this style of wine?" asks Jooste rhetorically. "I don't see why not." Mason adds "The concept of the wine can't go any further than this ward. There's definitely enough of a global market for all of us to make a particular version." Whatever the case, Klein Constantia will always take credit for leading the way in returning a great vinous offering to the world.

Klein Constantia Vin de Constance 2001: Analysis:
Alcohol by volume: 14,83%
Residual sugar: 135g/l
Total acidity: 8,8g/l
pH: 3,67

Vin de Constance and maturation
Predicting when any particular vintage of Vin de Constance might reach its peak is a vain exercise if the following is anything to go by: a bottle of 1791 Constantia sweet wine obtained from the cellars of the Duke of Northumberland was ceremoniously opened on Klein Constantia's owner Duggie Jooste's 75th birthday in 2001 and apparently proved excellent drinking.