Late Dutch Renaissance Style:
Groot Constantia Manor House

±6000 BC – Wine made for the first time in Armenia, Georgia, Iran
±5000 BC – Winemaking caught on in Egypt, Jordan, Syria
±2000 BC – Greeks began making wine in earnest
±1000 BC – Vineyards established in Italy, North Africa
±500   BC – Winemaking taken up in Spain and France

1600

• First Cape vineyard planted in 1655 and first Cape wine made in 1659, using grapes from the farm of Dutch navigator / colonial administrator Jan van Riebeeck in what are today two of Cape Town’s residential suburbs, Bishopscourt and Wynberg
• Stellenbosch founded in 1679
• Boschendal of Groot Drakenstein founded in 1685
• Simon van der Stel planted first Constantia vines in 1685
• French Huguenots arrived from 1688 – many settled in the valley that became Franschhoek
• First wine from Fairview of Paarl made in 1699

1700

• Vergelegen of Somerset West established in early 1700s
• By mid-to-late 1700s the sweet wine of Constantia was famous in Europe
• Wine bottled at Rustenberg of Stellenbosch from 1724
• Nederburg of Paarl established in 1791
• Phylloxera detected on Cape vines in 1886 – disease decimated SA wine farms

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1900

• In 1906, South Africa’s first co-op winery established in Tulbagh
• KWV established as a co-op in Paarl in 1918, becoming SA wine farmers’ association with legislative powers and industry control
• In 1925 Stellenbosch University’s Prof Abraham Perold crossed Pinot Noir and Hermitage (Cinsaut) to produce Pinotage
• First commercially available Pinotage wine (1959 blend of/from Kanonkop and Bellevue) launched by Stellenbosch Farmers Winery (now Distell) under Lanzerac label in 1961
• First mega SA wine brand Lieberstein (semi-sweet blend of Chenin Blanc and Clairette Blanche launched by SFW in 1959) broke world record with 31-million litres sold in 1964
• 1969 was the first vintage of Nederburg Edelkeur, South Africa’s first Noble Late Harvest wine made using grapes affected by botrytis cinerea (noble rot)
• First SA wine route established in Stellenbosch in 1971 – founders Delheim, Simonsig, Spier
• First Cap Classique sparkling wine on the market was Simonsig Kaapse Vonkel Brut 1971
• South Africa’s Wine of Origin legislation passed in 1972, implemented in 1973
• First vintage of Kanonkop wines under Kanonkop labels – including iconic Kanonkop Pinotage – was 1973
• First Nederburg Auction of rare and matured Cape wines held at Paarl estate in 1975 (renamed the Cape Fine & Rare Wine Auction and moved to Stellenbosch in 2019, held for the last time in 2021)
• First vintage of Cederberg Private Cellar was 1977
• First Platter’s South African Wine Guide was the 1980 edition
• First wine of Hemel-en-Aarde Valley outside Hermanus bottled by Hamilton Russell Vineyards in 1981
• In 1984, Meerlust Estate of Stellenbosch launched first (1980) vintage of iconic red blend Rubicon
• Cape Winemakers Guild founded in 1983 and first CWG Auction held in 1985
• In 1986, Klein Constantia introduces the iconic Vin de Constance Natural Sweet dessert wine from Muscat de Frontignan, a ‘renaissance’ in the style of the old Constantia adored by the royals and nobility of Europe and Britain in the 18th and 19th centuries
• First national bottled wine show held in 1990 – later renamed as the Veritas Awards
• KWV’s production quota system discontinued in 1992
• South Africa’s first consumer WINE magazine launched in 1993 (last edition published in 2011)
• Maiden vintage from Paul Cluver winery in Elgin was 1997
• KWV converted from industry body to private company in 1997
• Inaugural Michelangelo International Wine & Spirits Awards held in 1997

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2000

• In 2000, Distell company formed by merger of Stellenbosch Farmers’ Winery (founded 1925) and Distillers Corp (founded 1945)
• First of The Sadie Family Wines of Malmesbury (Swartland) bottled in 2000
• First South African Trophy Wine Show held in 2002
• First South African wines bottled under screwcap came onto the market in 2002
• 2003 sees the first bottling of wines at the Strandveld and Black Oystercatcher cellars outside Elim in the Cape Agulhas district
• 2003 is the ‘maiden’ vintage of the natural sweet Muscat de Frontignan Grand Constance from Groot Constantia, following Klein Constantia in ‘resurrecting’ South Africa’s oldest wine, a brand revered by Napoleon Bonaparte and King Louis Philippe of France, Frederic the Great of Prussia and other members of the aristocracy in the 1700s and 1800s
• First of the annual SA Wine & Cellar Classifications published in 2004 – first by Wine magazine, later on Top Wine SA

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2010

• Top Wine SA website launched in 2012
• A South African wine export record of 525m litres set in 2013, exceeding 500m litres for the first time
• Inaugural Cape Wine Auction held in 2014, with R7m raised for wineland charities
• At 2016 Cape Wine Auction in aid of wineland charities, R1.3m fetched for a bottle of Touch Warwick Cabernet Sauvignon, vintage 2014, WO Stellenbosch
• Old Vines Project formalised in 2016, the mission to preserve old Cape vines and to develop a culture enabling young vines to be healthy and productive in their old age
• Certified Heritage Vineyards seal introduced in 2018, enabling producer members of the Old Vines Project whose wines are made using grapes from vines over 35 years old to include on their packaging the date that the vineyard was planted
• 275ml bottle of Jaubert Muscat d’Alexandrie 1800 from Joubert-Tradauw outside Barrydale in the Klein Karoo fetches R51 210 at the 2019 Strauss & Co Fine Wine Auction in Johannesburg, higher than the R42 500 fetched at the 2015 Nederburg Auction in Paarl (1800 refers not to the vintage but to the year in which the wine was first made, involving a solera process whereby a barrel first filled in 1800 has been tapped from occasionally and topped up with younger wine). At the same auction a 500ml bottle of Klein Constantia Vin de Constance 1986 Natural Sweet dessert wine sells for R34 140 (R51 210 per 750ml incl), and a standard bottle of GS Cabernet 1966 sells for R34 140 – this for a somewhat mysterious wine, made as an experiment by George Spies of Monis in Paarl, supposedly using grapes from Durbanville, rated 20/20 in 2015 by authoritative British wine critic Jancis Robinson MW

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2020

• In the wake of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic which manifested in China before spreading around the world, the South African government declares a national disaster and implements a countrywide lockdown from midnight on 26 March 2020 which involves a ban on the sale and transport of all alcoholic beverages – restrictions eased on 1 May, allowing the resumption of exports, with domestic prohibition continuing on and off into 2021
• At Strauss & Co auctions conducted online in 2020, three 750ml bottles of three-year-old Stellenbosch Chenin Blanc from vines nearly 100 years old, Sadie Family Mev Kirsten 2017, sell for R18 760 (R6253 per bottle incl buyer’s premium and VAT), two magnums (1.5L) of five-year old Stellenbosch red blend Kanonkop Paul Sauer 2015 sell for R28 450 (R7112 per 750ml incl), a 750ml bottle of 35-year-old Paul Sauer 1985 sells for R7622 (incl), 750ml bottles of 1984 and 1983 CWG Paul Sauer sell for R8794 each (incl)
• A rare little bottle of Grand Constance 1821 (375ml) sells for R420 000 (excl) – £21 000 or US$30 000 – at the 2021 Cape Fine & Rare Wine Auction, previously the Nederburg Auction. Bought by a UK-based client of the Christie’s auction house, the bottle of sweet dessert wine made from grapes harvested at Groot Constantia is believed to be one of only 12 of this vintage still in existance, from an allocation once destined for French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte.
• At a Strauss & Co Fine Wine Auction in September 2021, a 375ml bottle of 1821 Grand Constance sells for R967 300 (incl), equivalent to £48 908 or US$67 659 – this one with its original closure, unlike that auctioned earlier in the year (see above) which had been recorked. At the same sale, R91 040 was paid for a bottle of the mysterious 1966 GS Cabernet, ditto for a bottle of Distell’s 1957 Chateau Libertas, ditto for a 275ml bottle of non-vintage Jaubert Muscat d’Alexandrie ‘1800’, and R34 140 was paid for a 500ml bottle of 1987 Klein Constantia Vin de Constance.
• At a Strauss & Co auction in October 2021, a bottle of Alheit’s 2018 Radio Lazarus (Chenin WO Bottelary-Stellenbosch) sells for R25 036 (incl) and the Sadie Family’s red blend Columella 2010 (WO Swartland) for R8535pb.
• In August 2022, R58 625 is paid at a Strauss & Co auction for a 500ml bottle of 1987 Vin de Constance, a new record for this sweet dessert wine from Klein Constantia.
• In September 2023, R44 555 is paid for six bottles of Sadie Family Skurfberg 2015 (Chenin) at Strauss & Co auction, i.e. R7426 per bottle incl VAT and buyer’s premium.

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