History of High Constantia in Cape Town, South Africa

High Constantia is being restored, under David van Niekerk, to its former winemaking glory. Wines, combining the traditions of the past with flavours that resonate in the New Millennium, are once again issuing from its cellar

High Constantia, first called Wittebomen, because of the number of Silverleaf trees growing there, became the property of the Van Renen family when it was purchased, in the early 1800s, from William Duckitt. An 1816 record reports Sebastiaan van Renen as ‘preparing to make vineyards’ in the hope of successfully vying, within a few years, with Cloete and Colijn, his neighbors at Constantia and Hoop-op-Constantia, the name first given to Klein Constantia. Van Renen was acting on the conviction that the hedge, which separated his farm from Constantia, did not change the nature of the soil; he believed, too, that something in the climate of that hill imparted the wine’s particular flavour. But Sebastiaan died in May 1821 and the deeds office shows Wittebomen as, in fact, having been purchased by Jacob, his son, in May 1813.

Immediately they took charge, the Van Renens planted 110 000 stocks of the Muscadel grape on their hillside. When adverse rains washed away vines and land, they quickly applied themselves to the conditions and dug trenches to lead off the water in the next season. On 21 February, less than two months before his father’s death, Jacob transferred the farm to his younger brother, Sebastiaan Valentijn Jnr., who named the property ‘Sebastiaan’s High Constantia’. Being an excellent wine farmer and a canny businessman, it was he who established the reputation of High Constantia.

By 1824 High Constantia was producing wine good enough to compete with High Constantia and Hoop-op-Constantia. By 1827 the three estates were receiving the same price for their wines in England. In 1829 James Holman wrote:

The whole vineyard lies on a declivity [facing] the east and having the Hout Bay range ... behind it. It produces upon an average of 45 leaguers of Constantia wine.

If a corresponding sum of money were laid out upon the property, he continues, it might produce 200 leaguers annually.

By 1841 High Constantia & Groot Constantia were the two main competitors in the area, Cloete relying on the antiquity and tradition of Constantia and Van Renen on his highly competitive prices.

High Constantia was described in its heyday by Sam Sly, a newspaper reporter, as consisting of three mail buildings set amidst lawns, plants and trees, the most notable of which was a great oak, near the wine store, in which was constructed a table and chairs where family & friends took their ease.

In 1850, after almost 3 decades, Sebastiaan Valentijn transferred the farm to the joint ownership of his two sons, Sebastiaan Valentijn and Rudolph Cloete van Renen, respectively. A decade later, Rudolph having been declared insolvent, Sebastiaan Valentijn received 117 Mogen, his division of High Constantia. By 1875, when the latter died, odium & phylloxera had ruined the farm and it was left an insolvent estate.

On 14 May 1889 David John Pullinger bought High Constantia. It changed hands again in 1902, becoming the property of Robertson Fuller Bertram who, within a few years, had made a success of the farm.

In 1942, when Bertram died, High Constantia ended its career. In 1944 began its subdivision into residential properties. Its cellars, however, were saved by becoming part of the Groot Constantia project initiated by the government.

Today David van Niekerk, having purchased the name ‘High Constantia’, is again planting stocks and producing from his cellar – a structure that is reminiscent of High Constantia’s original proud home for wine – wines that, while they echo the gracious past of the former estate, give new life to the subtle flavours brought forth by the mystic blending of earth and climate in the area.