Following devastation of the vineyards by Phylloxera at the end of the 19th Century, the wine was revived by Klein Constantia in 1986, and has quickly reaffirmed its place back among the world's greatest sweet wines.
Scoring a massive 19.5++/20 from Matthew Jukes and 98 points from James Suckling. With "otherworldly characteristics", Jukes "cannot remember a young vintage tasting so refined and demure". While the "extraordinary aromas" (JS) might draw you in, it the palate that is really beguiling. "Super-smooth" and "unnervingly gentle" (MJ), the impeccable balance between the incredibly sweet dried apricot and tangerine notes and the citrus freshness keep it so "energetic and vivid" (JS). Possessing the "longest finish" that Jukes can remember experiencing, it goes on for minutes and minutes.
Although it is a sweet wine you can drink young to "marvel over the intensity and verve" (JS), this 2018 has a very long life ahead, with a drinking window up to 2070. This Vin De Constance 2018 will "blow your mind" (MJ) and considering it costs just a fraction of the price Château d'Yquem and Royal Tokaji's Essencia, the value for money is also out of this world.
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
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
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- Details
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- Year 2018
- Colour White
- Country South Africa
- Region Coastal Region
- Sub Region Constantia
- Designation
- Classification
- Pack Size 6x50cl
- ABV 14°
- Drinking Window 2021 - 2070
- Drinking Recommendation Drinking Now, will improve
- LWIN 111854220180600500
- Reviews (4)
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98 Decanter
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
98 Jane AnsonThe 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
98 James SucklingExtraordinary 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
19.5++ Matthew JukesI 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
- Producer
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About Klein Constantia
Dating back to 1685, Klein Constantia is a profoundly special estate of breath-taking beauty. Arguably the single most beautiful winery in the world, in fact, it has been one of the mightiest names in South African wine for generations.
The crowning glory of the estate, which also crafts some impeccable dry wines, is without question the legendary Vin de Constance – preserve of Kings and artists from Napoléon Bonaparte to Charles Dickens and Jane Austen. Seared into the collective consciousness of wine lovers for hundreds of years, we came perilously close to losing this immense wine altogether due to the bane of almost every vineyard, Phylloxera.
Nestled amongst ancient trees on the foothills of the Constantiaberg, this imperious producer was not spared the onslaught of the root-devouring lice. With its stunning views of False Bay, the cooling sea breezes simply set an idyllic location for what would be so disastrous an infestation that the varietal from which Vin de Constance is made, Muscat, disappeared from their vineyards entirely.
Hope was kindled in 1982 when the Jooste family, current owners, planted the first Muscat vines on this site since their destruction. 1986 saw the first “new” vintage of South Africa’s greatest sweet wine, and the cuvée has reaffirmed itself as one of the greatest fine wines in the world over the past decades since its resurrection.
Collectors will be intimately familiar with both fortified sweet wines, and the great botrytis-laden wines of Sauternes and Tokaji. Vin de Constance is a late harvest wine. The grapes from which it is made are left on the vine for as long as possible to raisin and achieve very high levels of sugar on their own. A precarious balancing act is performed each and every vintage by the incredibly talented and diligent team at Klein Constantia, led by Matthew Day, to pick at just the right time.
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Klein Constantia Vin De Constance - Offers on Cru
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