Napoleon's Last Wine: Groot & Klein Constantia

How to Complete

4 steps to experience this fully

1. 🍷 1

   Taste the Wine a Dying Emperor Demanded

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   In his final week before dying on May 5, 1821, Napoleon refused everything. Not food. Not medicine. Just Constantia wine. Up to a bottle per day during his six-year exile on St. Helena. When the end came, this is what he wanted. Klein Constantia's Vin de Constance is that wine, revived in 1986 after phylloxera wiped it out a century earlier. Made from Muscat de Frontignan -- the same grape Van der Stel planted in 1685. A bottle of 1821 Grand Constance, the vintage from the year Napoleon died, sold for 21,000 GBP ($30,000 USD) at auction. Book ahead (essential, limited capacity). Open 10:00-17:00 daily except Christmas and Good Friday. Contact info@kleinconstantia.com or +27 21 794 5188. Ask specifically to include Vin de Constance in your tasting. Better yet, book the exclusive vertical tasting -- 3 vintages of Vin de Constance plus cellar tour. Tell the staff you want to hear the Napoleon story. Joseph Luson, the wine agent who supplied Napoleon, married Catharina Maria Cloete on May 24, 1817, connecting the two Constantia estates through the wine that kept a dying emperor alive. If the vertical isn't available, taste the current vintage and buy a bottle (~$173/750ml). You can personalize it with custom wax seal colors and initials. Drink it at the end of the trail with 370 years of context.

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   Find Where the Vine That Saved an Empire Grows

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   The slopes you're looking at are the resurrection. When phylloxera devastated the Cape in 1886, Vin de Constance disappeared for 100 years. Klein Constantia replanted in 1986 -- same grape variety, same valley, same terroir Simon van der Stel chose after hand-mapping the entire Cape Peninsula's soil. Book a vineyard tour (Jeep or bike tours available -- ask at booking). The guide will take you through the vineyards and explain why Van der Stel chose this exact spot: decomposed granite soil, south-facing slopes (cooler in Southern Hemisphere), False Bay maritime influence, the South Easter wind bouncing off the mountains. This is precision farming from 1685. If vineyard tours aren't available on your visit day, walk outside the tasting room and look at the vineyard slopes. Ask staff: "Which vines are Muscat de Frontignan for Vin de Constance?" They'll point them out. The story is in the land itself.

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   Hunt the Three Writers Who Made This Wine Immortal

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   Three of history's greatest writers all wrote about Constantia wine. Read them in the vineyard or tasting room before you visit: **Charles Baudelaire** (Les Fleurs du Mal, "Sed non satiata"): "Je préfère au constance, à l'opium, au nuits" -- he ranked Constantia alongside opium and Nuits-Saint-Georges Burgundy as symbols of intoxication. **Jane Austen** (Sense and Sensibility): Mrs. Jennings offers Constantia to heartbroken Marianne Dashwood as "the finest old Constantia wine" for "healing powers on a disappointed heart." **Charles Dickens** (The Mystery of Edwin Drood): "the support embodied in a glass of Constantia and a home-made biscuit." Find the full quotes online before your visit. Print or save them. Read them while tasting Vin de Constance. Three literary giants, one wine. If staff aren't busy, ask about the literary connections. Baudelaire, Austen, and Dickens are part of the estate's storytelling.

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   Trace the Luson-Cloete Marriage That Kept Napoleon Supplied

   Optional

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   Joseph Luson was the wine agent who supplied Napoleon during his exile. The business relationship became personal: Luson married Catharina Maria Cloete (from the Groot Constantia Cloete family) on May 24, 1817 -- four years before Napoleon died. This marriage connected the two Constantia estates through the wine that a dying emperor demanded daily. When tasting Vin de Constance, ask: "Can you tell me about Joseph Luson and the Cloete family connection to Napoleon?" The marriage date (May 24, 1817), Napoleon's death (May 5, 1821), and the 1821 vintage that sold for $30,000 at auction -- it's all connected. If staff are busy, the Klein Constantia website and Napoleon.org both document the story. Or ask at Groot Constantia -- the Cloete family connection spans both estates. Between the two stops, you'll piece together how a Cape wine became an emperor's last comfort.

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