Supplier Diverse Flavours is to launch wines from South Africa’s oldest winery, Groot Constantia, into travel retail for the first time, kicking off with an international debut at the TFWA Asia Pacific exhibition in Singapore.

 

One of the world’s oldest ‘trade marks’, Groot Constantia has a revered 300 year history with Constantia wines receiving international acclaim for their superior quality during the 18th century. Charles Dickens celebrated it in Edwin Drood; Jane Austen described it ‘as a cure for a broken heart’ to heroine Marianne Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility; and Charles Baudelaire compared Constantia wine to his lover‘s lips in his most famous volume of poems, Les Fleurs du Mal.

 

Before his death in 1821, Napoleon was said to have had 30bottles a month shipped over to St. Helena to ease his exile.

 

In 2004, Groot Constantia received another significant historical endorsement when a local picked up a piece of glass on the beach at Lewes, Delaware, on the east coast of America. The fragment bore the inscription ‘Constantia Wyn’ and American historians subsequently traced it to a ship that stranded in the Delaware Bay in 1774.

 

To commemorate this discovery, the Grand Constance wine bottle today carries a replica of the inscription on that same glass artefact.

 

Anthony Budd of Diverse Flavours commented: “Groot Constantia is one of the most iconic brands in South Africa and with its amazing history ranks as one of the world’s most enduring brands. We are delighted to bring Groot Constantia Wine into our portfolio along side Ernie Els Wines, Cederberg, Avondale, Deetlefs, Napier and Raats Family wines. It will make an even greater team!”

 

Diverse Flavours will be exhibiting the Gouverneurs Reserve, Pinotage, Shiraz, Sauvignon Blanc, Blanc De Noir and the rare Grand Constance wines at their TFWA stand.