/ FOOD & WINE /
What’s in my glass? EMILE JOUBERT
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ver the past year or so, the Cape’s original wine region – Constantia — has found itself in the wine world’s headlines. It’s a story we South African’s know (or should know) all too well; the tale of Constantia’s glorious history of making sweet wines that wooed the nobility, the courts and the emperors of Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries. Great history counts, for sure, but it is important to note that the heady days of Constantia continue unabated. This spectacularly beautiful region still produces formidable wines, building on its heritage and continuing the legacy and provenance established by those folks of yore who, under the banner of the Dutch East India Company, pioneered winemaking on the southern tip of Africa.
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Klein Constantia, one of the superfarms here, clings to history in the making of its excellent Vin de Constance sweet wine, an ode to the forefathers. But the estate has also embraced Sauvignon Blanc, the world’s modern-day wine hero that, over the past four decades, has become one of the top white grapes in the world along with Chardonnay. In the right hands and made from grapes grown on patches of earth suitable to expressing the complete dimension of
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2022/02/24 09:17