Groot Constantia wine farm (Source)
I’ve immensely enjoyed wine since my virgin palate tasted a cheap store-bought Chardonnay many years ago. But while there have been plenty of opportunities to turn this enjoyment into a hobby – I grew up in Virginia, for example, home to Bordeaux-loving Thomas Jefferson and an explosive new wine scene1 – the wine bug didn’t bite until relatively recently, after I’d moved to South Africa.
My first taste of SA wine, not counting some red blends from London supermarkets (a poor representation of what SA has to offer), was at a beautiful estate called Groot Constantia, the country’s oldest wine farm (“Groot” = “big” in Afrikaans, and Constantia is a wealthy suburb south of Cape Town). This was a charming and picturesque experience, memorable enough for me to return to Groot Constantia a few more times, but alas it’s still not what got me hooked on wine. Credit for that goes to British wine writer Oz Clark, whose masterful and impassioned defence of New World wines in the Intelligence Squared debate Old World vs New World positively compelled me to take advantage of my new home and tour the Cape Winelands.
| NEW WORLD OR OLD WORLD? While South Africa is known as a “New World” wine country, its earliest vintage – made by Jan van Riebeeck, the first commander of the Dutch settlement at the Cape of Good Hope – dates all the way back to 1659. Van Riebeeck’s diary recorded the historic event with the famous line “Today, praise be to God, wine was made for the first time from Cape grapes.” By 1814, when the British secured possession of the Cape, Constantia’s wine was world-famous, enjoyed by the likes of Frederick the Great, King Louis-Philippe, and Napoleon. Fast forward to the early 20th century, and the creation of South Africa’s most famous grape variety, Pinotage (a cross between Pinot noir and Cinsaut) was initially rejected by local winegrowers who preferred European styles. So what is South Africa, really? New World or Old World? On paper it will always be New World. But in reality it’s both (or neither). |
So that’s what I did. I packed a bag and went to Stellenbosch, about an hour east of Cape Town, where a small family vineyard welcomed me into their home. From there I visited the surrounding wine farms and tasted dozens of wines.
Rather than bore you with the details of my excursion, or what I learned about wine, I’ll simply share the standout features of South African wine farms that I later shared on a writer friend’s Substack:
- Luxury: Many estates have chandeliers, grand pianos, gold-leaf mirrors–the works. They’re beautiful venues worth enjoying in their own right, vino or no. Some, like Steenberg, are luxurious because they’re affixed to a 5-star hotel (or is the 5-star hotel affixed to them?). Others, like Vergelegen, which has an extensive library of over 4,500 books, were built using cash from the Dutch East India Company, a trade empire rich beyond comprehension.
- Views: The scenery is breathtaking. As you sip your wine you can feast your eyes on rolling hills, rocky mountains, a spectacular array of vegetation (of the world’s six floral kingdoms, the Cape is the only one that falls entirely within the borders of one country), and stunning cloud formations like Table Mountain’s “table cloth“.
- Price: By American / British standards, most wine farms are a steal. For R155.00 ($8.50 / £6.70), here’s what you get at Groot Constantia:
- Manor House Museum and Cloete Cellar Access
- Guided or Self-Guided Cellar Tour (10h00 – 16h00) – hourly
- Wine Tasting (five wines of your choice) [Note: SA wine farms pour very generously, sometimes up to half a glass. Befriend the server, and you’re in for a great time.]
- Souvenir branded wine glass
- Add a chocolate tasting for only R60 [$3]
Now, I don’t think there’s much point in enjoying all this wine if I can’t write about it. And if I can manage to string a few words together recreationally, them maybe someone, someday, will even pay me to do it. Until then, I’ve created this blog as a way to both share my experiences and hone my wine writing abilities.
- 50 years ago VA had a handful of wineries; now it has well over 300. ↩︎
Bottle and Barrel 
