In conversation with Boela Gerber, Groot Constantia’s winemaker, as the estate celebrates 337 years.
Being responsible for the wine heritage of a historic estate like Groot Constantia, literally named for its constancy, is no easy feat.
But it is one Boela Gerber has been custodian of since his first harvest at the estate in 2001. Some 22 years later, Groot Constantia continues to rake in the accolades for its quality wines.
For a business to have more than three centuries of producing quality wine is pretty impressive, Boela says matter-of-factly as a fire crackles in the cosy restaurant setting of Jonkerhuis – an equally special part of the visitor experience to South Africa’s oldest wine estate.
SEE: Constantia Wine Route | Top Cape Town wine tasting experiences
During his tenure as winemaker, Boela has not only revived the Grand Constance, but together with the Groot Constantia winemaking team, they’ve taken this dessert wine into a legacy class of its own.
It is difficult to build a brand if you don’t produce a consistent style. Between the 1790s to the 1820s Grand Constance was made from various varietals, Boela explains.
“They used Pontac, Muscat and Chenin. Some were fortified and some were naturally sweet. We did some research about production styles and methods. From journal inscriptions to chemical analysis, we used this as a basis to reproduce the Grand Constance.
For Boela and his team the mission has always been to create “something as close as possible to those old original sweet wines, and getting it consistent from year to year, to get it right.”
He acknowledges it is tricky, as it is a very late harvest.
“We finish the harvest, go on a short holiday and only then do we start with the Grand Constance. So it is a special late harvest in the true sense of the word.
“We make a few different components. It’s not a case of making one batch and praying to Bacchus that it works out,” he says with a grin.
These include slightly earlier, later, drier, and sweeter components, he adds.
"Stylistically, it is about the colour and flavour profile that needs to get as close as possible to our benchmark."
And of course, Groot Constantia couldn’t ask for a better 337th birthday celebration as Grand Constance has just received the National Wine Challenge Special Award for Wine Consistency and the Grand Cru ‘Best in Class’ Award.
Grand Constance has achieved more than seven top 100 positions annually, with 11 wins over a period of 12 years – making it the undeniable grand dame of sweet wines.
So now that we know what the estate does well, I wanted to find out what secrets, if any, existed this ancient wine farm?
While the Constantia Valley is known for its Sauvignon Blanc, for Boela the Shiraz grown at Groot Constantia in particular is something of an Insider Secret.
With its 400 hectares making up about 4% of the wine produced in the region, he notes with pride that for such a tiny region they make a "considerably big noise".
“In my 20 years here, I’ve found that our Shiraz is really expressive and special. It is quite an interesting variety, we have some amazing Shiraz growing across all the regions of the Western Cape. But I do think what we’ve found here on Groot Constantia is really special.
“Grand Constance is one of the historical wines that people know, but we found the inscriptions in the early 1700s by German and French viticulturalists and they believed the Constantia Red, at the time made of Shiraz, had a very unique style.
But it’s not just this celebrated winemaker’s word on it either.
“As management, we get a few bottles of wine every month to enjoy at home, we call it quality control,” he says with a wry smile.
“And it’s quite interesting, if you speak to our viticulturalist and the assistant winemaker they don’t part with their Shiraz! When it comes to sharing with other people or birthday gifts or whatever, they just don’t give the Shiraz away.
"I think if you talk to the insiders here, the Shiraz is something that is very close to our hearts.”
Part of the Groot Constantia wine-making team, from left to right, Hansie Warries (cellar foreman), Floricius Beukes (estate manager and viticulturist), Boela Gerber (winemaker) and Daniel Thana (team manager).
And Groot Constantia is close to the hearts of thousands of visitors. Pre-Covid the estate welcomed some 450k visitors per year, this dropped by some 53% during thee pandemic to about 211K visitors in 2021.
But with extensive upgrades and changes to its Tasting Room, as well as Simon’s restaurant, visitors numbers are already increasing.
As a provincial heritage site and a living museum, Groot Constantia has always been one of Cape Town’s most important destinations and is a member of the Cape Town Big 6 tourist attractions.
For the modern-day visitor, a wonderful day out at Groot Constantia includes its Visitors Route Experience that allows you to walk back in time by following a specially designed circular route that takes visitors to the historical key attractions at Groot Constantia.
The original Manor House at Groot Constantia (which is an Iziko Museum) is the starting point for the Visitors Route Experience. After this, guests make their way to the famed Cloete Cellar, which is the original wine production cellar from 1791.
This historic cellar was where the famous Grand Constance wine was produced, and now the cellar houses a museum and unique tasting room.
Old carriages, winemaking memorabilia and a collection of old Grand Constance bottles sourced from all over the world are among the things to see in the Cloete Cellar Museum. After exploring the modern production cellar for a tour and wine tasting, visitors are then welcomed to venture into the vineyards for the self-guided audio Vineyard Tour.
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