February 11, 2025
Klein Constantia’s Vin de Constance 2019
One of the world's finest sweet wines rivalling greats like Chateau D'Yquem. The 2019 vintage is one you'll certainly want in your cellar.
Scoring 98 points from three prominent wine critics
With over 320 years of history, Vin de Constance is hailed as the greatest sweet wine of the Southern Hemisphere, known for its freshness, complexity, and hedonistic aromas. The Muscat de Frontignan vines, exclusively used for this wine, span over 16.5 hectares on the slopes of the Constantiaberg mountain. This ancient terroir, rich in clay and over 600 million years old, provides excellent water retention, essential during dry summers. Located 70-100 meters above sea level, the southeast-oriented Muscat vines benefit from the cooling Cape Doctor breeze, ensuring optimal growing conditions.
Vin de Constance can only be made in South Africa where labour costs are relatively low. The vinification process usually involves 20-30 separate pickings, including grapes from bush vines planted in 2011 and older trellised vines from 1983. Fermented separately, the wine is aged for three years in a mix of new French oak, acacia barrels, and large foudres before blending and bottling. Historically, Vin de Constance was favoured by figures such as Napoléon, King George IV, and Queen Victoria, and literary icons like Jane Austen and Charles Dickens, underscoring its timeless appeal and unmatched quality.
The 2019 vintage:
The 2019 growing season was characterized by a dry winter and a mild spring, leading to reduced yields but high-quality grapes. The summer was warm and consistent, allowing the Muscat de Frontignan grapes to ripen perfectly.
Winemaker Matthew Day has spent a decade experimenting, innovating, and refining his craft, pushing the boundaries of quality. The 2019 vintage perfectly showcases his work. Emerging from a long and late harvest, the winemaking process shifted from extended 6 to 12-month fermentations to a precise 1 to 3-month period. The wine aged for 18 months in 50% new French and Hungarian oak barrels, followed by 18 months in large foudres, ensuring a complex and refined final product. The outcome is a wine blending opulence with balance and complexity.
The wine critics are unanimous in their scoring with Decanter, Greg Sherwood MW and Jane Anson coming in with 98 points whilst Neal Martin of Vinous scores one point behind with 97 points making this one of the most highly regarded vintages of Vin de Constance.
With a whole case of 6x50cl costing about as much as a single 75cl bottle of d'Yquem 2019, Vin de Constance offers incredible value and we are very happy to recommend the wine.
Klein Constantia Vin De Constance 2019
98 Points | Decanter, Georgina Hindle
Butterscotch, lemon patisserie and peach aromas. Pristine quality to the texture, lively and thrilling, this is a serious, opulent and powerful wine, more on the spiced, nuanced side with aspects of dried herbs, wood scents and bitter lemon and orange with a touch of honeyed lychee. It feels supremely complex and characterful. Sophisticated, layered and balanced with some minerality, a slight graphite edge all of which adds to the whole. It's still extremely youthful but there is real sculpting here, a sense of precision, style and freshness. Well crafted with an extremely long life ahead. A wonder, and one of the best from the estate!
98 Points | Greg Sherwood MW
The 2019 displays an incredibly opulent, powerful aromatic profile brimming full of grapefruit preserve, lychees, white peaches, green melon confit and melted honey on warm white toast. What purity and precision! The wine sticks perfectly to the estate’s mission statement trying to make a sweet wine that tastes not particularly sweet regardless of its actual 166 g/l RS. This is achieved through an incredible balance and harmony with a palate texture showing a sublime equilibrium between acid, alcohol and fruit intensity. Beautifully complex and layered with hints of peach iced tea, pink musk, pear purée, quince jelly and candied citrus bon bons. Very classy indeed and undoubtedly one of the best modern vintages to be made at the estate. Drink now and over the next 30+ years.
98 Points | Jane Anson Inside Bordeaux
Vin de Constance takes the category of sweet wines to a new level, and this is another stunning success from them. Expect succulent pear, quince, apple, peach pit, tarte tatin, wonderfully seductive and opulent but never taking a single step over the line. Second year on the Place for this iconic wine. Winemaker Matthew Day.
97 Points | Vinous, Neal Martin
The 2019 Vin de Constance is matured for 18 months in 500-liter Hungarian and French oak barrels, 50% new, followed by another 18 months in oak foudres. The growing season saw more sunlight hours than previous vintages (2,998 compared to 2,588 in 2018 for example). It has an understated nose, almost Sauternes-like even if it does not contain an ounce of botrytis. Subtle nutty aromas percolate through the wild honey and quince scents, wax resin and lanolin. The palate is medium-bodied and very pure. Disarmingly fine acidity, it is slightly Germanic towards the finish. with a hint of lemongrass lingering on the aftertaste. This is a superb Vin de Constance under the tenure of Matt Day that is a step closer to what you might confusingly call a non-sweet dessert wine.