Gliding up the leafy driveway to the Groot Constantia wine estate, it is hard to believe that the local wine industry has been going through tough times. A busload of tourists has just been disgorged at the estate to start wine tasting, their voices filling its main entrance hall.
But, although the site, with its vineyards sweeping through the heart of Cape Town’s suburbia, may appear to be the turf of tourists, it belongs squarely to South Africans, according to Groot Constantia general manager Jean Naudé.
This is arguably the country’s oldest wine estate and brand, spanning more than three centuries, and its history can be traced to its original owner, governor Simon van der Stel. Since then it has seen several incarnations — from the Cloete family farm in its early heyday to a state-owned experimental wine farm in the late 1800s and the section 21 company that it is today.
And this operational structure appears to have been working. ‘It’s amazing how it works. All the profits are ploughed back into the farm. It’s a magnificent model,” said Naudé. The Groot Constantia Trust, as the company is known, runs the estate and property and hosts Iziko Museums at no charge. Iziko operates the manor house and the old Cloete family cellar as museums and heritage sites.
The board comprises representatives nominated by various stakeholders, including three by the minister of agriculture, three by the wine industry and one each by Constantia residents, Iziko Museums and the Western Cape government. Since its incorporation as a company in 1993, the estate ‘has not cost the taxpayer a single cent”, Naudé said.
But times have been tough. The global recession hit not only visitor numbers but also export markets — roughly 60% of Groot Constantia’s wines are exported. The volatile exchange rate has further aggravated things. Despite these hardships and losing money in 2010, the company broke even this year. About 20% of total production is sold from the farm and the other 20% is sold through local distributors.
Although a heritage site, Groot Constantia is still a working wine farm, evidenced by the tractors barrelling alongside vineyards. The estate was founded by Van der Stel in 1685 but was split into three separate farms after his death in 1712 and sold on auction in 1714. The two smaller portions became Bergvliet and Klein Constantia and the land with the main house and cellars became what we now know as Groot Constantia.
It was after 1778 under Hendrik Cloete, and then his son, that the farm’s wines became increasingly famous and were enjoyed by the likes of Napoleon. Earlier this year, Groot Constantia was declared South Africa’s oldest brand in a book titled From Groot Constantia to Google: 1865 to 2010 — A History of Brands & Branding in South Africa.
The title has drawn heat from the Mail & Guardian’s own wine critic Tim James, who contests the claim. He said in a blog post that the Constantia wines, so famous in the 18th and 19th centuries, would have been the product of not just Groot Constantia but also of farms such as Klein Constantia. As such, the name or ‘brand” Constantia very likely referred to the region of origin rather than Groot Constantia itself.
But the brand debate aside, Naudé said that because the farm still existed after 300 years and continued to produce wine, it was a formidable testament to Groot Constantia’s place in both the region and the industry’s history. ‘The main thing, if you look in broader terms — and you take this area, it is a magnificent [wine-making] area. The fact that — this entity, this farm, has survived all these years, to me it’s proof of the underlying quality,” he said.
That legacy has been commemorated by its Grand Constance range, a modern interpretation of the wines the estate made in the past. There is no doubt that the estate is a national treasure, its soil and stones surviving Dutch and English colonial masters, slavery, apartheid, disease, fire and drought. Here’s hoping that it remains the source of many a toast for years to come.