2017 Klein Constantia, Vin de Constance, Constantia, South Africa

This is really sensational as always with dried-apricot, dried-pineapple and honey character with salted nuts and hints of white syrup. It’s very sweet, yet energetic and intense. It goes on for so long. And then again. Yet, it remains balanced. A great sweet wine through and through.

Drink or hold

14% alcohol.

This is just remarkable. Quite pale in colour, it has a pure, enticing nose of sweet citrus, table grape, a hint of marmalade and some peach and apricot tropicality. In the mouth, this is complex and intense – almost viscous – with fresh citrus and table grape fruit, showing a bit of spice and marmalade, some peach skin and honey. The finish is endless: the purity of this wine is astonishing, but it’s not at all cloying, with some spicy phenolics adding the required detail, and a bit of alcoholic warmth. One of the world’s great sweet wines: you can cellar this with confidence.

The 2017 Vin de Constance is lucid silvery-straw in hue. It is beautifully defined on the nose, featuring scents of dried honey, almond, praline and pressed yellow flowers, perhaps borrowing some of the airiness of the 2016 vintage. The palate is underpinned by a keen line of acidity that effortlessly counterbalances the richness of this 2017, making it one of the easiest sweet wines to drink in its youth. It conveys plenty of energy with a very persistent orange peel, quince and marmalade finish, then a spicy aftertaste. Sublime.

Drink 2020 - 2050