‘This is sheer heaven… It is fit, agile, nubile, cleansing and refreshing.’
– Matthew Jukes, 19.5+/20
South Africa is producing finer wines than ever before – a testament to a deeply rooted wine culture and an industry that’s re-imagined itself in the last three decades. But long before all the recent 95+ pointers were cracking the headlines, there was this famous sweet wine from Constantia, one of the greatest and most sought-after in history. The modern Klein Constantia Vin de Constance 2021, from a near-perfect year, is a revelation. Matthew Jukes’ tasting note brings this South African treasure to life. Above all, ‘It will age forever – we know the rules, but I think that impatient collectors and daring restaurateurs might crack on with this beauty indecently early in its lifespan because it is already so utterly mesmerising.’
The great 2021 vintage enjoyed a long, cool ripening period – ideal conditions for the raisined Muscat de Frontignan grapes to reach uber-ripe intensity and sweetness. Produced with the absence of botrytis or dried grapes, this vintage is a combination of 25 batches, offering terrific complexity, elegance, haunting aromatics and a detailed palate. Under Matt Day’s guidance, Vin de Constance has become even finer and more precise. Gone is any sense of cloying, syrupy fruit or oakiness, only light-footed balance. It’s little wonder Tim Atkin has just named Vin de Constance 2021 as his ‘Overall Sweet Wine of the Year’. 300 years of excellence, improved.
Tasting Notes:
Klein Constantia Vin de Constance 2021
‘Produced in what Matt Day describes as a “perfect” year from Vin de Constance, featuring a long, cool, three-week harvest, the 2021 release has no botrytis but amazing concentration, freshness and intensity. Combining grapes from 25 batches, this confirms the wine’s standing as one of the world’s great stickies, with layers of orange blossom, jasmine, quince, marmalade and tarte tatin, 168 grams of residual sugar and remarkable freshness and palate length.’ – Tim Atkin MW, SA Special Report 2024, 98/100
‘I have been fortunate to taste almost every vintage of this legendary wine from the modern era and this is one of the very finest. I use the word finest carefully. Not best, the greatest, not the most impactful nor the richest. This is a fine wine, a refined wine, resplendent in finery. As the winery notes set out above, this is a wine made at a very relaxed pace from grapes with incredible natural sugars balanced by startlingly fresh acidity, and this is precisely what it tastes like. There is no excess flesh. ’21 VdC is a toned wine which strolls along the citrus spectrum, preferring not to set foot in oranges and purples, pinks or reds. It sticks to sensual yellows and strays only as far as green gold. This is sheer heaven. Not only for a sweet tooth like me, but for those who have yet to embrace the greatest sweet wines on the planet for fear that their teeth will fall out. ’21 Vin de Constance could not be further from this image. It is fit, agile, nubile, cleansing and refreshing. For every molecule of decadence, there is an equal and opposite molecule of dynamic acidity. While this is a sweet wine, it finishes dry! And I adore it. It will age forever – we know the rules, but I think that impatient collectors and daring restaurateurs might crack on with this beauty indecently early in its lifespan because it is already so utterly mesmerising.’ – Matthew Jukes, 19.5+/20
