The Wines of South Africa

Within a few years of establishing a Dutch settlement in the Western Cape in 1652, the new inhabitants had begun to make wine to fortify crews sailing from Europe to the colonies in East Asia via the Cape. Just a century later, South Africa was producing wines of repute, with those made at Constantia favoured by both Napoleon and his great rival the Duke of Wellington. Since then, both disease and political upheavals have seen South Africa’s wine industry suffer and recover several times. T...