Klein Constantia Vin de Constance 2017 50cl

Description

New Release. Price £55.00.

Tasting Notes:
Pure gold in colour. The nose presents an enticing encounter, followed by precise yet delicate aromas of white flowers, ripe citrus and touch of rosewater and almonds.

The palate is in perfect harmony with a luscious mouthfeel. Flavours of creamy stone fruit, litchi, citrus zest and a lively spice abound creating an ideal balance. It concludes with a vibrant yet complex long finish.

Vintage 2017:
Whilst still technically in a drought, we had a text book growing season with a slightly higher rainfall than previous years. It was characterised again by cold nights, warm days, wind and very little rainfall. This further aided the berry development and due to the dry conditions leading up to harvest, we had exceptionally healthy fruit.

Winemaking:
The approach used to create Vin de Constance is unique to Klein Constantia, tailored from historic information used to make the iconic sweet wines of Constantia in the 1700’s. From these records we have recreated a style of Muscat de Frontignan involving numerous winemaking techniques in order to create the perfect sweet wine. One of the most important aspects is to achieve balance, to do this we harvested the grapes in numerous batches over a 2 month period. Each batch has a precise purpose and is meticulously blended together on numerous occasions to achieve a perfect balance between sugar, alcohol and acidity. After an extended fermentation period, the wine was aged for 3 years in a combination of 50% new oak and acacia barrels, as well as large format foudres before further blending and bottling.

Maturation:
The combination of residual sugar and alcohol levels has a well known preservative effect on bottled wine. This wine is capable of ageing for many decades if not generations from release.

Wine Analysis:
Alc: 14%
RS:165g/l
pH: 3.7
TA: 6.6g/l

Background Information:
First produced over 300 years ago as ‘Constantia’, Kings vied for possession of this wine; Louis Philippe sent emissaries from France to fetch it; Napoleon drank it on the island of St Helena to find solace in his lonely exile; Frederick the Great and Bismarck ordered it; Charles Dickens’ character Edwin Drood found support in it and Jane Austen recommended Constantia for its “healing powers on a disappointed heart”.

Vin de Constance today is one of the world’s greatest sweet wines.

Made from 100% Muscat de Frontignan.

Production of Vin de Constance is extremely limited and only occurs in exceptional years – there was no 2010 vintage.