Vin de Constance 2021: 'a wonderful vintage'

It's one of the world's great sweet wines, and it doesn't come from France or Germany. Muscat de Frontignan vines were first planted on the foothills of South Africa's Constantiaberg mountain in the 17th century, looking out to False Bay. The combination of sun, ocean breezes, decomposed granite soils and this noble Muscat variety led to an exquisite sweet wine. For a time, Vin de Constance was esteemed above Sauternes and Tokaji Eszencia. It was famously enjoyed by Napoleon and Jane Austen. Then, in 1872, it disappeared, a victim of the phylloxera epidemic — and that, you might assume, was that.

Until the 1980s, when vines were replanted here. As South Africa opened to the world after apartheid, Vin de Constance made a comeback. After a picking season that can last three months and fermentation that can take as long as a year, Vin de Constance matures for three years in a mix of first new barrels, and then old foudres. It is a close-to-unique process that results in a remarkably complex sweet wine.

Matt Day (pictured) has been winemaker here since 2011, and his tenure has been a great success; he has brought a lightness of touch to the making of this unctuous sweet treat. 2021 was cool by South African standards. That gave Matt great flexibility with harvest dates, and the relatively high natural acidity in the grapes has blessed 2021 Vin de Constance with a remarkable level of tension and energy to balance the natural sweetness. /NT