Groot Constantia Gouverneurs Reserve 2022
£31.45
The wine
Groot Constantia's flagship red shows beautiful complexity on the nose, with ripe, rich flavours of blackcurrant, dark chocolate and graphite, enriched by notes of cinnamon and cedar from generous new oak. The black fruit and sweet spice follow through to the palate, and the firm structure promises excellent ageing potential.
Gouverneurs Reserve is the estate's flagship red, a Bordeaux blend of all four principal varieties, and it is named for the governors who once held the estate. Simon van der Stel, granted the land in 1685, was the first. Aged in French oak and released only in vintages the cellar judges worthy.
The producer
Groot Constantia
View all Groot Constantia winesGroot Constantia is the oldest wine estate in South Africa, granted to Simon van der Stel in 1685 and producing wine continuously ever since. It sits on the eastern slopes of Table Mountain, close enough to False Bay for the sea air to cool the vineyards through the afternoon.
Its historic reputation rests on Constantia, the sweet wine made here from the late seventeenth century that became one of the most sought-after wines in the world. It was drunk at the courts of Europe, ordered by Napoleon in exile on Saint Helena, and referred to by Jane Austen and Charles Dickens. Production collapsed when phylloxera reached the Cape in the 1880s and the wine disappeared for a century before being revived as Grand Constance.
The estate is now a public trust, farming around 90 hectares and open to visitors, with the original Cape Dutch manor house preserved as a museum. The modern range covers Bordeaux varieties, Shiraz and Sauvignon Blanc alongside that sweet wine, and the whole property is a national monument.
