Cape sweetness in Italy

Fiona Phillips looks back at a remarkable tasting of Vin de Constance

The alarm clock invades my sleep at 07h00 on the Saturday morning: ‘Where am I? What day is it? Come to think of it – what am I doing here?’ I’m in Milan – my first visit to shopping heaven, and I won’t have time to make the most of that fact. I’m here for far more important wants! Several months earlier a dear client of mine, Sebastiano Cossia Castiglioni, had talked about hosting a vertical tasting of Vin de Constance, one of his favourite wines. Sebastiano had been buying South African wine for at least four years and, in his opinion, Ross Gower’s masterpiece is truly great.

The night before my rude awakening, Sebastiano had hosted a magnificent dinner in Milan for 16 of us at the first (and only?) Michelin-starred vegetarian restaurant, and the wines represented the best money could buy: from Krug 1982, through De Vogüé Musigny ’90, to Châteaux Lafite and Latour ’82 (to mention a few). Then with dessert? Vin de Constance ’91 and ’87. ‘I don’t believe that Ross and Lowell [Klein Constantia owner Lowell Jooste] are yet aware of the greatness of what they have created’ said Sebastiano, ‘but they will, in time!’

So ... Saturday morning. We pile into mini-buses and, with the snow-capped Alps in the distance, drive for about an hour from Milan to another Michelin-starred restaurant where the vertical tasting of Vin de Constance is to be held.

We’d managed to source many of the vintages for Sebastiano by buying at auctions, and Lowell kindly filled the two or three gaps in the 13 vintage line-up, so at the tasting venue there were thirteen glasses in front of each place card.

The who’s who of Italian wine journalism was there, as well as a crew from Italian TV, and the Armani-dressed South African ambassador, Alwyn Figgins. Let the show begin! Lowell started the proceedings by giving us a bit of history surrounding the wine, with romantic stories of Napoleon and Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, and King Louis-Philippe. Then Ross took us through the different vintages of Vin de Constance, starting with the 1998. He spoke with great passion about the viticultural and vinicultural methods used, describing how they remove leaves, exposing the bunches of Muscat de Frontignan grapes to the sun and letting them shrivel – the modern equivalent of twisting the stems to cut off supply from the vine … the barrel maturation in 500ml French oak for 18 months … the recreation of the original bottles.

Wine by wine, we tasted, the golden colour and upfront kumquat citrus on the nose and palate from the most recent vintages giving way to dark amber with a luscious nutty flavour as we proceeded to the older wines. 1997 was unbelievable … then ’91 stuck out as something very special, but we’re nearing the end of this incredible experience when the ’87 is presented … Wow! What a wine! Back comes the citrus, lifting the wine out of the glass and saying ‘here you go guys … I’ve been waiting patiently and now I get to shine’, in a wonderfully well-matured where-have-you-been all-my life sort of way. Viscosity to the fore, mouthfeel, deep, rich, honey-toffee, nartjies, kumquats, raisins. And the finish? I can still taste the sweet almonds!

As far as the rest of the company was concerned, the ’91 seemed preferred, followed by that ’87, and everyone seemed to like the potential of the ’97. Interestingly, these were the three slightly affected by noble rot.

The rest of the day was spent working our way through a lunch of 10 courses, accompanied by South African wines – all 92 of them … but that’s a story for another time.

– Fiona Phillips is the Chief Executive Officer of Cybercellar