The history of the vine in South Africa can be traced to 1652, when Jan van Riebeeck of the Dutch East India Company founded Cape Town and established its first vineyard.
The first wines of the colony, derided by contemporaries for their “revolting sourness,” emerged seven years later to sustain sailors bound for the East Indies on the long ocean voyage. But with the arrival of French Huguenots fleeing religious persecution in their homeland in the late 1680s and early 1690s came a new wealth of winemaking knowledge. The Huguenots settled between Paarl and Stellenbosch in a region that became known as Franschhoek (meaning “French Quarter”) and established vineyards. Around this same time, Governor Simon van der Stel’s Constantia estate eclipsed the modest winemaking tradition of his predecessors and introduced sweet Vin de Constance, then called the "governor's wine," to the world. This wine would be coveted throughout the courts of Europe and holds its prestige even now, over 300 years later. Founded near Cape Town in 1685, Constantia—now a ward of the Coastal Region—was divided into three estates upon van der Stel’s death in 1712. In 1778, Groot Constantia, one of these estates, was sold to Hendrik Cloete, who renovated the property and brought international acclaim to the wines.
South African wines flourished under British colonial rule, but in the latter half of the 19th century, powdery mildew and phylloxera struck. Compounding the industry’s misfortunes, the British finally abolished preferential tariffs in 1861, renewing competition with French wines. In the absence of such tariffs, Cape wines—often heavily treated with sulfur dioxide and fortified with poor brandy—simply
Under the Coastal Region, the wording is a bit confusing regarding the introduction of Cape Town. "The region is subdivided into eight districts: Stellenbosch, Cape Town, Paarl, Tulbagh, Darling, Franschhoek Valley, Wellingtonand Swartland. Another district, Cape Town, was introduced in 2017 and contains the wards of Constantia, Hout Bay, as well as Durbanville and Philaldephia which were previously included under the now-repealed Tygerberg district." Cape Town is already listed as a district, and then it says: another district, Cape Town, was introduced in 2017... Also, the map on the page does not reflect the changes.
Not major, but it is a bit confusing to read. Thank you!!
Thanks Vincent !
Jay and Higor,
These maps are from the Court and indeed do need to be redone. I don’t think they’ll be redoing them anytime soon but when the Guild creates a South Africa map I’m positive it will be reflected here. In the meantime I’ll adjust the wording. Happy studies.
Higor, this tripped me up a bit also. I think the Guildsomm administrative peeps changed the page in 17' when these changes took place. But, they only changed the first sentence ! An updated map would be nice too. Not too surprised, South Africa is probably the most neglected region on many levels, this is exactly why I want to dig deeper here.