Klein Constantia Vin de Constance 2021 (1.5L)

98 JA / 98 TA / 97 VM / 96 JS / 95 DB / 19.5+ MJ

Powerful apricot, chamomile, white tea, pineapple, preserved lemon, white flowers, gentle gunsmoke, intense, concentrated, vivid, just superb quality, spinning and stretching out on the finish. A wonderful vintage of Vin de Constance. Matthew Day winemaker, owners are Zdenek Bakala, Charmes Harman, Hubert de Boüard, Bruno Prats and Hans Astrom - Jane Anson, Inside Bordeaux

Produced in what Matt Day describes as a "perfect" year from Vin de Constance, featuring along, cool, three-week harvest, the 2021 release has no botrytis but amazing concentration, freshness and intensity. Combining grapes from 25 batches, this confirms the wine's standing as one of the world's great stickies, with layers of orange blossom, jasmine, quince, marmalade and tarte tatin, 168 grams of residual sugar and remarkable freshness and palate length. - Tim Atkin MW

The 2021 Vin de Constance comes from 27 different batches with two weeks on the skins. With 173.5 grams per liter of residual sugar (the same as 2020), it presents a very pure bouquet, effervescent with quince, orange zest and just a hint of marmalade—wonderfully delineated and focused. The palate is supremely well balanced with a viscous entry and extremely good weight in the mouth, but the acidity (6.3 grams per liter) keeps this on its toes. Quite spicy on the finish, this lingers long in the mouth, and I can still feel it 30 seconds after it has departed. There’s real freshness and electricity here. Outstanding. - Neal Martin, Vinous Media

Dried apples, apricots, honey and light caramel with some flowers on both the nose and palate. Medium-bodied, sweet but not overpowering, showing lots of freshness and focus. Tangy at the end, but so polished and caressing on the palate. Drink or hold. - James Suckling

Vin de Constance (Klein Constantia) 2021 (100% Muscat de Frontignan; 14% alcohol). Honeyed. Richer, fuller and more opulent than the Kracher Grande Cuvée tasted before and less tense and taut, Vin de Constance remains very true to its style in its vintage. This is ample and mouth-filling, pushing out the cheeks. More obviously sweet and less fruit-forward in a way. But fantastic too and with a personality all of its own. Saffron and peach, crème brulée – with both the creaminess and the burnt sugar. Butterscotch too. Juicy and with the freshness delivered on the finish. 95. - Colin Hay, The Drink Business

I have been fortunate to taste almost every vintage of this legendary wine from the modern era and this is one of the very finest. I use the word finest carefully. Not best, the greatest, not the most impactful nor the richest. This is a fine wine, a refined wine, resplendent in finery. As the winery notes set out above, this is a wine made at a very relaxed pace from grapes with incredible natural sugars balanced by startlingly fresh acidity, and this is precisely what it tastes like. There is no excess flesh. ’21 VdC is a toned wine which strolls along the citrus spectrum, preferring not to set foot in oranges and purples, pinks or reds. It sticks to sensual yellows and strays only as far as green gold. This is sheer heaven. Not only for a sweet tooth like me, but for those who have yet to embrace the greatest sweet wines on the planet for fear that their teeth will fall out. ’21 Vin de Constance could not be further from this image. It is fit, agile, nubile, cleansing and refreshing. For every molecule of decadence, there is an equal and opposite molecule of dynamic acidity. While this is a sweet wine, it finishes dry! And I adore it. It will age forever – we know the rules, but I think that impatient collectors and daring restaurateurs might crack on with this beauty indecently early in its lifespan because it is already so utterly mesmerising. 19.5+/20 (Drink now – 2060) - Matthew Jukes