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MICHAEL FRIDJHON: Constantia takes long-overdue steps to improve its quality
It’s not too late for this small but superpremium area to come right — but it’s going to have to give up its loyal addiction to unremarkable sauvignon blanc to get there, writes Michael Fridjhon
I tasted a really good sauvignon blanc from a new Constantia winery recently. The property is called Constantia Royale; it has a few hectares of vineyard (with more on the way) located at a lower altitude than many of the better-known producers. The wine is perceptibly more sumptuous than the region’s traditional examples, though still pleasantly free of lugubriousness. It takes quite a lot to get me enthusiastic about sauvignon blanc, so my pleasure was tinged with an element of surprise. I’ve said some very rude things about the variety in my time — though always with the caveat that unless the vineyards are properly sited the wine maker has the unenviable task of trying to fix something that arrives broken in his cellar. It doesn’t automatically follow that if the vines have been planted exactly where they should be happiest, the wines make themselves. While you can’t produce good wine without good fruit, it’s easy to mess up something as fragile as sauvignon blanc. Happily for m...
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