I am informed by the top man at Klein Constantia that the price will be the same as last year’s superb 2017 and all of the likely candidates in the UK are likely to hold stock. It will require a little effort on Google and you will see that a large number of wine merchants will list 2018 Vin de Constance and while the prices swing around like no other wine I know, at £60 or so, for a half litre, it certainly makes sense to me and when you consider the sheer quality of this vintage, it is a bargain for this celestial experience. Stock is likely to arrive in September 2021, but do feel free to register your interest with your preferred wine merchant now.
Vintage reports suggest that the build-up to the 2018 harvest brought the highest summer rainfall of the last six years and, combined with some of the coldest night-time temperatures on record, the vines were granted a very long and very slow growing season. These conditions have imbued extreme delicacy of perfume and flavour and also staggering concentration and length in this wine. It also means that the 2018 vintage has otherworldly characteristics and I cannot remember a young vintage tasting so refined and demure. Light bunches and tiny Muscat de Frontignan berries underline just how unusual this vintage was and with a harvest that was a fortnight later than average and crops down by about 15% all of these facts make sense when you taste this ethereal wine. Aged for three years in a combination of 50% new French oak barrels, a small number of acacia barrels, as well as large format foudres, this is both a sensual and also sensitive wine. For a start, the colour is incredibly pale – think a young Sancerre! But the viscosity is amazing when you pour a glass because the liquid moves ever so slightly slower and more deliberately into the glass. The lights come on and the brain fires up immediately and it takes you by surprise just how quickly your olfactory system senses that you are in the presence of greatness. I was in a state of heightened anticipation, long before I raised the glass to my lips and the reward is exquisite. The perfume and palate combine in an astral haze of delight with orange blossom, fig, lemon verbena, wild honey and acacia notes caressing your senses. The texture is super-smooth, incredibly long and unnervingly gentle. It certainly possesses the longest finish I can remember on a Vin de Constance and I have, very fortunately, a tasted huge number of vintages of this wine. If you have never tasted this wine before, please start with this vintage – it will blow your mind. If you have and you are a fan, this is a critical purchase for your collection. I cannot wait to add this wine to my cellar later in the year.

Drinking Window: 2021 - 2070

Review Date: 10th June 2021

A gorgeous wine, texturally brilliant with such intensity while not being overpowering or too much. The overall feeling is so satin-like, smooth and intense with layers of wild honey, orange blossom, caramel, pear, white peach and a delicate smokiness. The aromas alone are enough to get your excited about this wine. A density of sweetness settles at the back of the throat reminding you that this is a sweet wine as there’s so much freshness and life to it. Everything in balance and in its place. Exceptional. Drink now to enjoy the youth or wait for further evolution.

Drinking Window: 2021 - 2050

Reviewer Name: Georgina Hindle

Review Date: 20th July 2021

The most gorgeous mix of straw, powerful citrus, apricot, fresh juicy white pear and peach, tons of stone fruits and spice, graphite and smoke. As ever this is both subtle and overpowering, managing push and pull and so so good - both lusciously sweet and a breath of fresh air running through your palate. As I say every time I drink Vin de Constance, if every sweet wine tasted like this, there would be no sales crisis in the category. Drink now, or allow the flavours to deepen further over the next decade.

Review Date: 6th September 2021

Extraordinary aromas of white peaches, apricots, vanilla and flowers. Full-bodied and very sweet with so much sweet and dried fruit, such as apricots and tangerines, yet it maintains citrusy freshness and texture, with a long, very sweet finish. Always energetic and vivid. Great length to this. Goes on for minutes. It’s a sweet wine to drink when young, to marvel over the intensity and verve, yet also one to age for decades. Drink or hold.

Review Date: 20th August 2021

The 2018 Vin de Constance was picked over 60 days, the second most prolonged picking since the maiden 1986 vintage. It was lightly pressed into 500-liter barrels for alcoholic fermentation, which can take up to six months, then matured on the gross lees in 60% new oak and acacia barrels. This vintage contains 172g/L residual sugar and 6.2g/L total acidity. It presents a vibrant, effervescent bouquet of freshly sliced grapefruit, fresh fig and citrus fruit, all penetrating, vivacious and tensile. The palate is beautifully balanced with a fine bead of acidity, impressive weight and notes of grapefruit and orange zest plus hints of stem ginger. The spiciness is accentuated toward the finish. Another outstanding Vin de Constance courtesy of winemaker Matt Day.

Drinking Window: 2022 - 2045

Reviewer Name: Neal Martin

Review Date: 29th November 2021