Gratinata di Salvigina

Constantia Uitsig Restaurant chef Clayton Bell keeps things simple (and reader-friendly) with this match for a Cabernet Sauvignon from Stellenbosch estate Uitkyk. Joanne Gibson reports.

Constantia Uitsig, Constantia

This picture-pretty Constantia wine estate offers excellent cuisine, fine wine and enchanting settings at several different venues. Constantia Uitsig Restaurant with its Mediterranean influenced cuisine can accommodate from 80 to 120 guests, while Eat Out Restaurant of the Year for 2008, La Colombe, offers French-Asian fine dining, and, during summer, can fit up to 100 guests in a romantic courtyard.

Constantia wine ward and Cape Point wine district

Constantia is where some of South Africa’s first wines were made several hundred years ago. Today, Groot Constantia, Klein Constantia (both registered estates) and Buitenverwachting share the Cape peninsula with High Constantia as well as Constantia Glen and Eagles’ Nest just north of them on Constantianek, which leads to Hout Bay and bubbly specialist Ambeloui.

26 September 2003

David McCay, merchant banker and owner of Constantia Uitsig Wine Estate, takes his wine with a little soda added. His rationale? "Use a good wine, and you end up with a good spritzer. Use a bad wine and at least you can drink what would otherwise be undrinkable."