Vin de Constance, Klein Constantia 2012

The 2012 Vin de Constance won’t be released for another year, but put a note in your diary to buy some when it is. Sweeter and more alcoholic than the 2011, but somehow fresher and brighter, too, it’s floral, pure and focused, with notes of orange zest, tarte tatin and well integrated oak. Shaping up to be the best Vin de Constance yet.

The 2012 Vin de Constance Natural Sweet Wine delivers 160 grams per liter of residual sugar with a pH of 3.7 and, spent 28 months in French and Hungarian oak barrels. There is actually great similarity on the nose, perhaps a little more floral than the 2011 with mirabelle,and a touch of petrol infusing the honey and marmalade aromas. The palate is unctuous on the entry, nicely balanced as the acidity slices through the rich honeyed fruit that lingers long in the mouth, a touch of orange zest and nectarine towards the finish. I have a preference for this Vin de Constance over the 2011 - a superb dessert wine from Matthew Day.

Mathew Jukes' Wine of the Week 13th May 2016I am fortunate to have tasted this illustrious wine – a favourite of Dickens, Baudelaire, Austen and Napoleon – back to the 1986 vintage and it always impresses me greatly. One of the frustrating aspects of being a winemaker is that you must exercise Herculean levels of patience when making your wines. Matt Day started working at Klein Constantia four years ago, so it has been a very long wait for him to show me the greatest release I have ever tasted from this property. I am delighted to report that the first ‘full vintage’ under Matt is officially ‘off the scale’. There is insane apricot perfume and mind-blowing sweetness here (164 gm/L) but it is underpinned with the most precise acidity imaginable. I have been long saying that this wine needs more acid and zip to balance the phenomenal sweetness from the Muscat grapes. Matt has achieved this balance with characteristic élan. The harvest took a record 3 months to complete, with 26 passes through the vineyards. He only pressed 500 litres of juice from each tonne of fruit! This is the most focussed and the most exquisitely balanced Vin de Constance of all – patience is truly a virtue!