South Africa’s Wine Roots: Early Cape Vines & Stellenbosch’s Cabernet
- how dutch roots & european vines shaped south african wine
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“Today, praise be to god, wine was made for the first time from Cape grapes.”
-Jan van Riebeeck
That was 1659, Feb 2nd to be exact! This quote is from an entry in Jan van Riebeeck’s diary, 7 years after his arrival at the Cape of Good Hope at the tip of Southern Africa. He was employed by the Dutch East India Company to set up a refreshment station at this key stopping point. Merchant ships required provisions during their travels to East India and surrounding areas for the trade of spices, silks, and other luxury items for the European market.
Van Riebeeck settled near what is now Cape Town in 1652. Within months of his arrival, he contacted Amazon (presumably) to get some European grape vines delivered! With the vines coming from France, Germany, and Spain - and 17th century service being a little slower - the vines did not arrive until 1655 and 1656.
About 30 years later, in 1685, just outside of Cape Town, a wine estate called Constantia was established by Governor Simon van der Stel, founder of the town of Stellenbosch. This site is still well-preserved today due to its importance both culturally and historically.
I read about a renowned South African wine from that era!
Yes, it came almost a hundred years later, as the subsequent purchaser of a portion of the Constantia estate made a dessert wine that became internationally famous. Named after the estate, Constantia wine maintained a legendary status from the late 18th to early 19th century. The luscious dessert wine, likely Muscat grape based, was at its peak appreciated by western European royalty from Queen Victoria of England to exiled Napoleon. It became one of the most acclaimed wines of Europe, fetching high prices. It was also written about by authors such as Baudelaire, Jane Austen, and Charles Dickens.
Today, Constantia is the name of a wine growing area within the wine sub-region called Cape Town (same as the city) – the oldest in South Africa. Herein, producer Klein Constantia released a dessert wine named Vin de Constance in 1986, comprised of dried Muscat grapes. They studied the estate’s early records with the goal of emulating Constantia wine. This wine is still made today.
Both Constantia and Cape Town fall under the South African Coastal wine region, which is also home to the second oldest wine sub-region of Stellenbosch. Producing since 1679, Stellenbosch is the sub-region that has elevated the country’s wine reputation. It surrounds the town of Stellenbosch, a key center for both South African wine business and education as the home of Stellenbosch University.
Stellenbosch has a reputation for high quality wines, especially Cabernet Sauvignon. Cabernet Sauvignon is now the world’s most planted grape variety.
Considering how prolific it is, you have not written much about the Cabernet Sauvignon grape itself!
Cabernet Sauvignon has origins in Bordeaux, France and is the love child of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc. It is considered a relatively young grape variety with no reference to it in early literature. It didn’t become relevant in Bordeaux until the end of the 18th century.
Its dark color and high tannin are the result of two factors: thick skins and small grape berries. Since wine color and tannins come from the skins, thicker skins provides a higher concentration of color pigment and tannins in the wine. The small grape size results in a low flesh to skin and seeds ratio (seeds also contain tannins), also resulting in a deeper color and higher concentration of tannins. When treated well in the vineyard and winery, Cabernet Sauvignon produces wine with distinctive very high-quality fine-grained tannins.
According to Jancis Robinson’s The Oxford Companion to Wine, there are approximately 10 top quality Cabernet Sauvignon wine regions globally, an esteemed list which includes Stellenbosch in South Africa.
I know this is your segue back to Stellenbosch and your featured wine but PLEASE I NEED TO KNOW the other regions!!
I won’t leave you hanging. I was very interested in reading this too! It is rare that a highly respected wine book makes such a definitive statement!
France: Médoc and Pessac-Léognan, both Bordeaux sub-regions
USA: Napa, Sonoma, and Santa Cruz Mountains, all in the state of California, in addition to the whole of Washington State
Italy: Bolgheri, Tuscany
Australia: Coonawarra and Margaret River
Spain: portions of the Penedès sub-region of Catalonia
The featured wine is from Ernie Els Winery Stellenbosch, named after the South African golf legend. Their first vintage was in 2000. They have a particular focus on Cabernet Sauvignon. So much so that they have 9 different Cabernet Sauvignon clones with the ‘412 clone’ from Gironde (from Bordeaux, France) being the most important.
I will stop you right there before you go down a clone rabbit hole, to let the readers move on with their lives!
Fine.
I wasn’t sure if I was going to include this wine. At first it seemed very ‘closed’ and I was disappointed. I assumed it was because it was a wine of lesser quality. Then I remembered it was a 2017, meaning all those lovely wine molecules have been trapped in the bottle with no air!
I decanted it in my glass by leaving only a moderate amount of wine in the glass for about 30 minutes. Ideally I would have poured it into a decanter. As I started to drink it, the wine continued to improve in terms of intensity, and number of flavors and aromas as well as how long these lasted on my palate.
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Ernie Els Major Series Cabernet Sauvignon 2017 from Stellenbosch, South Africa
Style: Full Body Red Wine
Varieties: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon
This rich wine has flavors of blackberries, black cherry, fresh black currant, dark chocolate, cardamom, cinnamon, vanilla, earth, tobacco, and leather with a hint of anise. The moderately high level of tannins are ripe and fine grained and the wine’s length is persistent.
Best pairings: Grilled steak, Herb-crusted lamb chops, Rich beef stew, Hearty mushroom risotto, Grilled portobello mushroom stuffed with Feta or Goat’s cheese & sun-dried tomatoes, Aged Cheddar or Stilton.
Serving Temperature: 16-18 degrees Celsius
Serving Tips: Decant for full expression - the wine’s flavors and aromas are muted initially. Minimum of 30 minutes.
Cost: ~$29 Cdn
I have compiled all my wine recommendations in one place. I will do my best to keep this up to date. I also include the link(s) to the article in which the wine was featured.
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SOURCES:
Estate, Ernie Els Wines. Available at: https://ernieelswines.com/pages/estate (Accessed: 26 August 2024).
Jan Van Riebeeck (no date) Encyclopædia Britannica. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Jan-van-Riebeeck (Accessed: 26 August 2024).
Harding, J. and Robinson, J. (2023) The oxford companion to wine. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press.
MacNeil, K. (2022) The wine bible. New York, NY: Workman Publishing.
Wine & Spirit Education Trust (2021) D3: Wines of the World - An accompaniment to the WSET Level 4 Diploma in Wines. Version 1.2. London: Wine & Spirit Education Trust.
Wines of South Africa - maps. Available at: https://www.wosa.co.za/Multimedia/Maps-Links/ (Accessed: 26 August 2024).
Wines of south africa - 3 centuries of cape wine. Available at: https://www.wosa.co.za/The-Industry/History/Three-Centuries-of-Cape-Wine/ (Accessed: 26 August 2024).
Thanks for a great read! I’m a huge fan of Stellenbosch Cabs 🍷 for me, Meerlust holds a special place as one of the labels that expanded my palate greatly as I started learning about wine. Worth checking out I think.