I read about it in my youth. It is mentioned in the works of Balzac, Beaudelaire and Alexandre Dumas. Some even whisper it could have been the vector by which Napoleon was arsenic poisoned. Et après tout, with such a French name, I had always assumed Vin de Constance came from France herself. I was wrong. It’s South African.
The wonderfully sweet wine’s origins go back 
to the late 17th century when the Constantia estate was created by Simon van der Stel, second Governor of the Cape. Around a hundred years later, a man named Hendrik Cloete bought the estate and he is credited for having raised Vin de Constance to international fame. It is said that the great figures of that time, Kings, Queens, Emperors and their assassins, drank more of it than any other wine, despite - or maybe because of - its exorbitant price. Among them was Napoleon.
Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the vineyards were decimated by a type of pest called phylloxera and the sweet wine’s production came to a grinding halt along with bankruptcy. The estate was bought by the South African government for nothing.
But Vin de Constance was to survive after all. Much closer to us, in the nineteen eighties, Klein Constantia was rehabilitated and production resumed. A new Vin de Constance was born from the old traditions, made with Muscat Blanc à Petits Grains.
Constantia, nested right against the inland flank of majestic Table Mountain, is a prime vineyard valley. Green is the predominant colour and beautiful wine estates are scattered around as if sprinkled by a mighty hand, most of them quite old and of Cape Dutch tradition, my favourite architectural style if I ever had one.
Last February, Marie, her mom and I went on a tour of the wine route. We visited the Klein Constantia and Groot Constantia estates which share most of the famous wine’s history. The facilities are modern, spotless and very impressive but the old buildings remain and this is where my focus and imagination were drawn.
Here are some photos of Groot Constantia’s old cellar, long replaced by a hangar-like room with shiny machines, but of such beautiful curves and still smelling of wine...
« Sipping a Cabernet Shiraz and nibbling crackers and double Brie...I chance upon this. sigh...the vineyard was one of my most favourite jobs.
Date of comment: 2009-05-27 00:01 •Wouldn’t those Cape Colonial buildings make a great studio! »
« They would indeed! »
Date of comment: 2009-05-27 07:48 •« Jane Austen, too: Constantia for « its healing powers on a disappointed heart. »
Date of comment: 2009-05-27 06:37 •- Did it work?
Baudelaire: « je prefere au constance, a l’opium, aux nuits, L’elixir de ta bouche ou l’amour se pavane. » »
« Hmm, this blog is going down the drain. I was recently quoting Beaudelaire http://www.vincentmounier.com/blog2/archives/463-Immortal.html and now it’s your turn. Why not Kipling while we’re at it?
Date of comment: 2009-05-27 07:57 •Ok, seriously now, did you know that the two alexandrins as you wrote them are a common misconception and that Beaudelaire in fact spelled it « au nuits », the nuits being a wine too (a bourgogne, Google tells me, which I’ve never heard of: Nuits Saint Georges.) »
« eeeep?
Date of comment: 2009-05-27 08:14 •what are Alexandrins
You’re such a funny Frenchman. »
« Oh, sorry! It’s a French thing, you couldn’t have known. Alexandrines are a poetry style, I guess - they are 12 syllable verses, usually 6+6. Try to read it out loud, you’ll feel the rhythm. Da-da-da da-da-da, da-da-da da-da-da. It’s quite well balanced. LOL
Date of comment: 2009-05-27 09:28 •Here’s an example from the (brilliant) French translation of Kipling’s (brilliant) « If »:
Si tu peux rencontrer Triomphe après Défaite
Et recevoir ces deux menteurs d’un même front,
Si tu peux conserver ton courage et ta tête
Quand tous les autres les perdront,
Alors les Rois, les Dieux, la Chance et la Victoire
Seront à tout jamais tes esclaves soumis
Et, ce qui vaut mieux que les Rois et la Gloire,
Tu seras un homme, mon fils »
« A bad example now that I think of it since the fourth and eighth are not alexandrines... »
Date of comment: 2009-06-18 16:43 •