Bobotie and Pinotage at the restaurant…how much more Capetonian can you ask for! I love this place, it is a piece of history less than 20 minutes away from home! Wines are pretty good as well…

Very commercial tasting room.

God only knows why they have such a “reputation”, and he’s not telling…they treat all local visitors with absolute disdain. Surely my R100 is the same colour as any tourist’s? Their wines are mediocre and the tasting experience well…not an experience at all. No friend of mine (local or otherwise) will ever be subjected to this winery again.

On Friday the Madame and myself venture out to the Constantia wine route with the relativity new Cape Point Vineyards as our final destination. A combination of irrelevant situations prevent us from an early departure so we left just after 12:00. We were still under the impression that this should be early enough to give Groot Constantia a go, seeing that our last visit, about a year ago, were absolutely appalling to say the least. In this time we’ve been to more then 200 wine farms, met the Groot Constantia wine maker and educated our palettes extensively. So we thought our new knowledge will help us appreciate this grand wine icon’s tasting experience a bit more. What a big fucking mistake!

Going to Groot Constantia as a normal wine consumer is as good as booking yourself into Pollsmoor Prison for a gang rape session. This place’ only mission is to fuck you over. I will never in my life go their again, or at least not until my rectum stops bleeding. It’s a vulgar place where the useless wine staff’s total lack of interest contaminant the wine until it taste like vinegar. With each sip I just wanted to fuck-off and escape from this Groot nightmare. That fact that we had to pay for this experience made me feel like a complete idiot. For R28 you get wine, full stop. What type of wine? Who knows, no one there cares to tell us. They were to busy doing fuck-all. I’ve experience better service from a sampling stand in the Pick n Pay.

When we left I almost had a tear in my eye. If this is our wine icon which showcase our wine industry and present our friendly South African service to thousand of tourists a year, I’m crying with embarrassment. As we drove to our next stop it occurred to me that this experience now influenced my whole perspective of the Constantia route. I wanted to warn all the other wineries in the Constantia area about this gangster that rape tourist and locals alike, while hiding in sleep clothes made from years of history and heritage. If the Constantia wine route is not careful this Groot shit will drag the whole area down into it’s wicket ways. I do not know if the people at Groot Constantia are under the impression that the general public are fucking idiots and that we do not know when someone rips us off, but I’ve got news from them, we do. I will never go back to this useless institution, never drink their wine (even if every bottle they every make from now onwards get 5 stars from Platter and its cronies) and will make a point to warn ever tourist and South African never to go here again.

But on a lighter point the next farm we visited, after this fiasco, quickly cemented my respect and love for the Constantia route. There are truly amazing gems here, if you can look pass the pile of shit that is Groot Constantia.

Took my girlfriend on a romantic Valentine’s day picnic to the oldest wine farm in the Western Cape, or so they said. The Groot Constantia farm is a wonder to the eye and to the education. Once I knew everything there was to know about how to make wine: strain it, drain it , hide it and cork it, I couldn’t have wished for a drink more sooner. The pinot grapes hit the spot while the Shiraz didn’t meet the hype that is built around it. Still the day was a thing of beauty. The wind in our ears and the Brut done our throats.

As a tourist destination, Groot Constantia is not a bad place to visit and because of this there are bus loads of foreigners there. It is also the only farm in Constantia, that I have visited, where tasting is not free and the tasting staff are rather unfriendly. All of the wines tasted were good, solid quality wines although, were pretty overpriced. If buying on a budget, the Constantia Rood is a bargain…

I have visited the farm 4 times in 5 years, and on EVERY SINGLE occasion I was left speechless by the unprofessional, apathetic and clueless staff and unfriendly tasting room. The supposed jewel in our Constantia crown is decidedly mediocre. The wine attendants sit on chairs behind the counter, chatting away, appearing beyond unprofessional. You have to buy tickets to taste on one side of the room, and take it around to the other. What is this? Do they not have a liquor license? Is it a church bazaar tombola? I cannot imagine how they can make the experience worse if they tried.

I think I must have charmed Groot Constantia tasting room chef ‘Aliston Murray’ but she made this a very interesting tasting experience for me.
At first I found the variety in flavours and aromas in their white wines interesting. Semillon-Sauv, Sauv, Chardonnay.

Great Sauv Blanc but my favorite was an excellent Gouverneurs Semillon with beautiful peachy/stonefruit and complex horseblanket aroma. This made me think about the wonderful spontaneous fermented ‘Geuze/lambic’ beer I love so much back home (http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambic)

So after the whites I told Aliston I ‘wanted to go for the reds’.
She took this literally and – I already surpassed my ‘6wine maximum’ – poured out all the reds in stock.
I got a plate with 7 glasses (Rood,Merlot,Shiraz,Pinotage,Cab, Bdx blend & port)
But offcourse I had to taste the MCC first

Took me quite a while to get through all this and my palate wasn’t performing at 100% I guess but it was an interesting experience for me trying to find the different aromas of the wines in this horizontal tasting.
One of the best pinotage I ‘ve tasted since I arrived in SA.

I can imagine it can get ridiculously crowded over here but I was there one hour before closing time on a quiet sundayafternoon. Ideal scenario.

Boela maak ‘n groot verskeidenheid wyn. Die Grand Constance voer mens terug na dié historiese plaas se ryk verlede – soet satyn… Die Sauvignon Blanc is vars en skoon; die Semillon versnit is gemaklik op die tong. En natuurlik is die MCC ‘n regte bederf.

Die plaas besoek ons gereeld vir funksies of kunsuitstallings of stap tussen die wingerde of hou piekniek op die gras. En so gerieflik naby die stad geleë.

For a national icon a tad disappointing. Definitely tour bus territory. Staff quite friendly and knowledgable, bit expensive to taste all the vino. PLUS is they are open after 1pm.

Bit unfriendly and no help from the hosts. Nice affordable wines

they are definitely geared for big groups, still worth it. A stalwart when having to take the visiting family around on a Sunday.
Love their Bouquet Blanc – fruity but dry.

The Groot Constantia Gouverneurs Sauvignon Blanc 2009 is absolutely fantastic. It’s so good, I went back twice for a refill at Caroline’s White Wine & Cap Classic review held at the Western Grand.

Groot Constantia aka “The Circus” it self! With bus loads of foreigners and R22 tasting fee for 5 wines it’s not on the top of my list, but probably understandable seeing that it is the oldest Wine Estate in the Southern Hemisphere ( apparently ). The tasting room was decorated with some great art pieces…….our favorite one was priced at the bargain price of R77 500. The wine was average and nothing to write home about. Although one can appreciate the history it does not give them an excuse to behave like a “Wine Shopping Mall”!

Unfortunately the only Constantia winery open ona Sunday. Tasting was very expensive – you got to keep the glass which I didn’t want. Rose good, whites Ok, reds just about OK. Manor House very interesting and grounds beautiful. Would definitely visit Constantia on a different day in future

Acid white wines with no fruit, reds had nothing to offer.

Premium wines may be better but not on offer for tasting.

Seems geared up for the coach parties so there are better places to go if you have your own wheels

Love the picnics and beautiful settings.

If you are from the East, it`s worth a visit!