My friend Hennie Duvenhage writes that “Groot Constantia plans to defend its reputation as the oldest wine farm in the country by enlisting the help of the Advertising Standards Authority’s [sic] to prevent other well-known wine farms adopting the distinction.” The ASA is clearly stepping into the breach left by the collapse of Kader Asmal and his Wine Council. The Mad Men are now not only rewriting the terroir of the Cape Peninsula, but history too.

Seems that Groot has hired the services of “independent historian, Dr Con de Wet” (translation: Con the Law) to dispute claims from Blaauwklippen and Boschendal that they are the oldest. Meanwhile, as any estate agent knows, “Steenberg is the oldest wine farm in the Constantia Valley, one of South Africa’s premier wine growing regions” so Con and Groot have missed the boat. No wonder “Tim Hutchinson, chief executive of Douglas Green Bellingham, owner of the Boschendal winery, declined to comment” – Steenberg is owned by his former boss Graham Beck!

The wines of Groot have never been better than they are at the moment thanks to visionary winemaker Boela Gerber. His Pinotage 2007 in particular is an exciting new direction for SA’s own grape. But why the sudden deployment of cash to score historic points? Is this the legacy of the birthday party celebrating 350 years of SA wine held on the farm earlier this year when as any fule kno, the grapes for that first vintage were grown in the Company Gardens near the Nellie?

Boela Gerber, oldest winemaker in SA?

Is it a case of delayed historicity that has at last stirred Groot from its Rip van der Winkel centuries old sleep after letting the VOC brand (the people who made the first SA wine) be snapped by teetotal Aussie wine farmer Michael Wright from Voyager Estate in Margaret River, West Australia. Who knows, perhaps Groot will now send someone to clean up the old Cloete cemetery on the farm which was full of used rough-rider condoms and empty Simba chip packets the last time I visited. Claiming to be the oldest wine farm in SA is one thing. Acting like it, another.

The Cloetes RIP

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