Klein Constantia

Two Constantia estates sell the same history, and they are not the same farm. Groot Constantia holds the manor house and the museum. Klein Constantia holds Vin de Constance, the sweet wine rebuilt here from eight hectares of Muscat de Frontignan planted in 1983. Klein Constantia Wine Estate took the Highest Climber Award in the 2025 World's Best Vineyards ranking.

Four tastings were listed on the estate's own site in July 2026. The Klein Constantia Signature Tasting runs 45 to 60 minutes at R300 per person and includes Vin de Constance. Our Sauvignon Blanc Story covers four estate Sauvignon Blancs, 45 to 60 minutes at R250. The Red Wine Tasting sets Anwilka against the estate red blend, 60 minutes at R250. The Vin de Constance Experience is 90 minutes at R1,250.

The tasting room opens daily from 10h00 to 17h00, including public holidays, with tastings ending an hour before closing. It is closed on Christmas Day and Good Friday. The bistro runs a shorter week, Thursday to Sunday, 12h00 to 15h00, on a seasonal menu. Vin de Constance is picked late; the estate described its 2021 harvest as later than usual, with cooler conditions and extended hang time.

Advance booking is essential for the Vin de Constance Experience, which runs by appointment only with limited daily access. For the other three tastings the estate recommends booking, especially at weekends and in holiday periods, but accepts walk-ins subject to availability. Parties over eight must be arranged directly, and changes or cancellations are asked for 24 hours ahead. The estate is a working farm and states the environment is not suitable for children. Pets are not permitted.

Klein Constantia sits in the Constantia valley, about a 20-minute drive from central Cape Town by car or taxi, with complimentary parking on site. The valley packs its estates close together: Groot Constantia, Buitenverwachting and Beau Constantia all sit within the same few square kilometres, so a day here does not need a long drive between stops.

Klein Constantia is a 146-hectare wine estate on the upper slopes of the Constantiaberg in Cape Town's Constantia valley, farming vineyards that rise from 70 to 343 metres above False Bay. Its signature wine is Vin de Constance, a sweet Muscat de Frontignan rebuilt here in the 1980s. The estate traces its origin to the Constantia farm Simon van der Stel founded in 1685.

Simon van der Stel, Governor of the Cape, founded Constantia in 1685 after surveying soils across the Cape Peninsula. He died on 24 June 1712 and the farm was subdivided and sold at auction. Phylloxera ended the sweet wine in the late nineteenth century, taking the details of how it was made with it. Duggie Jooste bought Klein Constantia in 1980 and set out to rebuild it.

The vineyards climb from 70 to 343 metres above sea level on decomposed granite, cooled by breezes off False Bay. Of the estate's 146 hectares, 22 are indigenous Grootbos forest rather than vine. The Vin de Constance block sits on layered ground: sandstone higher up, clay and decomposed granite in the middle, sand below. Klein Constantia farms as a WWF Conservation Champion inside the Cape Floral Kingdom.

Two of Constantia's literary references can be read in the original texts rather than taken on trust. In Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility, Mrs Jennings fetches "the finest old Constantia wine in the house" for Marianne, and Elinor drinks it herself, weighing "its healing powers, on a disappointed heart". In Dickens's The Mystery of Edwin Drood it arrives as "a glass of constantia and a home-made biscuit".