Constantia - the first New World superstar?

I mentioned in the entry about Tokaji Ezsencia that Constantia was one of the sweet wines beloved of the European aristocracy in the past. The label above is from the wine recreated by one of the two estates to emerge from the old Constantia holdings, Klein Constantia. (The other Groot Constantia also recently produced a modern version of the legendary wine, Grand Constantia). This is also my first blog about South African wines. Coming from an estate originally created in 1685 by the Governor of Cape Town and made from Muscat of Frontignan, it was appreciated by Frederick the Great as well as Napoleon, who ordered it from his exile in St Helena. However, with a combination of the removal of preferential tariffs as well as the double catastrophe of oidium (powdery mildew) and phylloxera, Constantia wine disappeared from the face of the earth.

Constantia however also left its mark in literature. Jane Austen mentioned it in Sense and Sensibility whilst Charles Dickens did so in his last (unfinished) novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood. In both instances, the characters in the novels remarked on the fortifying and supportive characteristic of the wine in times of disappointment of distress.