Klein Constantia Vin de Constance (500ML) 2012
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James
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Robert
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Golden and bright in color with aromas of marmalade and nutmeg on the nose. The palate is fresh and creamy with a rich sweetness that is complimented by good acidity, bringing the wine into perfect balance and ending with a lengthy and vibrant finish.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Dried apricot with some cherry, light caramel and brown sugar. Full-bodied and medium-sweet with phenolic texture. Amazingly deep and layered, showing turkish delight and some toffee, too. Flavorful finish. Sweet and savory at the same time. Even salty. Drink or hold.
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Wine Spectator
Intense, with dried orange peel, nectarine, apricot and kumquat notes laced with a vibrant green tea edge. The long finish picks up a bitter almond hint for added tension, while the unctuous fruit sails through. This is still very youthful and densely packed, so no rush at all. Muscat de Frontignan.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2012 Vin de Constance Natural Sweet Wine delivers 160 grams per liter of residual sugar with a pH of 3.7 and, spent 28 months in French and Hungarian oak barrels. There is actually great similarity on the nose, perhaps a little more floral than the 2011 with mirabelle,and a touch of petrol infusing the honey and marmalade aromas. The palate is unctuous on the entry, nicely balanced as the acidity slices through the rich honeyed fruit that lingers long in the mouth, a touch of orange zest and nectarine towards the finish. I have a preference for this Vin de Constance over the 2012 - a superb dessert wine from Matthew Day.
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Described as one of the world’s most beautiful vineyards, Klein Constantia is set amidst ancient trees and lush greenery on the upper foothills of the Constantiaberg, with superb views across the Constantia Valley and False Bay.
The HECTARE WINE ESTATE originally formed part of "Constantia", a vast property established in 1685 by Simon van der Stel, the first governor of the Cape. This particular valley was chosen not only for its beauty, but also for the decomposed granite soils on its slopes, gently cooled by ocean breezes.
Prized by leaders and aristocracy throughout 18th Century Europe, Constantia’s Vin de Constance was revived by Klein Constantia in 1986, reaffirming this unique natural sweet wine’s place in history.
Today, Klein Constantia continues to make some of South Africa’s top wines and the world’s best dessert wine; wines that reflect the cool Constantia climate, as well as their historic tradition.
Apart from the classics, we find many regional gems of different styles.
Late harvest wines are probably the easiest to understand. Grapes are picked so late that the sugars build up and residual sugar remains after the fermentation process. Ice wine, a style founded in Germany and there referred to as eiswein, is an extreme late harvest wine, produced from grapes frozen on the vine, and pressed while still frozen, resulting in a higher concentration of sugar. It is becoming a specialty of Canada as well, where it takes on the English name of ice wine.
Vin Santo, literally “holy wine,” is a Tuscan sweet wine made from drying the local white grapes Trebbiano Toscano and Malvasia in the winery and not pressing until somewhere between November and March.
Rutherglen is an historic wine region in northeast Victoria, Australia, famous for its fortified Topaque and Muscat with complex tawny characteristics.
With an important wine renaissance in full swing, impressive red and white bargains abound in South Africa. The country has a particularly long and rich history with winemaking, especially considering its status as part of the “New World.” In the mid-17th century, the lusciously sweet dessert wines of Constantia were highly prized by the European aristocracy. Since then, the South African wine industry has experienced some setbacks due to the phylloxera infestation of the late 1800s and political difficulties throughout the following century.
Today, however, South Africa is increasingly responsible for high-demand, high-quality wines—a blessing to put the country back on the international wine map. Wine production is mainly situated around Cape Town, where the climate is generally warm to hot. But the Benguela Current from Antarctica provides brisk ocean breezes necessary for steady ripening of grapes. Similarly, cooler, high-elevation vineyard sites throughout South Africa offer similar, favorable growing conditions.
South Africa’s wine zones are divided into region, then smaller districts and finally wards, but the country’s wine styles are differentiated more by grape variety than by region. Pinotage, a cross between Pinot Noir and Cinsault, is the country’s “signature” grape, responsible for red-fruit-driven, spicy, earthy reds. When Pinotage is blended with other red varieties, like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah or Pinot Noir (all commonly vinified alone as well), it is often labeled as a “Cape Blend.” Chenin Blanc (locally known as “Steen”) dominates white wine production, with Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc following close behind.