Klein Constantia is South Africa’s oldest and most fabled wine producer. Its roots date to 1651, when Jan Van Riebeeck, a young Dutch surgeon, was sent by the Dutch East India Company to start gardens for medicinal plants that might help the company’s sailors stay healthy on their long voyages. Riebeeck included French vine cuttings in his medicinal garden, and the plants flourished in the region’s Mediterranean climate. In 1685 the region’s Dutch governor, Simon Van der Stel, claimed a huge, lush valley he named Constantia, and based on Riebeeck’s success with vineyards, Van der Stel planted 7,000 grape vines and began making sweet white wines that by the early 19th century were internationally famous. Napoleon insisted on having “les vins de Constance” during his exile, and a half a century later the wines were mentioned in literary works by Jane Austen, Charles Baudelaire and Charles Dickens. Phylloxera ended winemaking in the valley in 1865, and wine wasn’t made again until 1985, when the Jooste family purchased the estate and replanted vineyards. In 2012 Klein Constantia merged with Anwilka winery, and Klein Constantia is today owned by five private shareholders, including Zdenek Bakala and Charles Harman, both successful international businessmen. Klein Constantia makes a large portfolio of white, red, rosé and sparkling wines, but it is still most famous for its Vin De Constance, its legendary white dessert wine.