AMAZING! They’d never get away with it in the modern era: different bottles, different-looking labels, but same wine, same vintage. Things were so different back then. Apparently not all Grand Constance / Groot Constantia wine of the 1800s was bottled at source. It was not uncommon for this sweet nectar to be shipped from the Cape to England and Europe in barrels, after which it would be ‘decanted’ into bottles that were all hand blown, some new, many recycled. And the labels, well…

On the face of it, you could be forgiven for thinking that the wine which somebody bought on auction for over R400K in the first half of 2021 was not the same as that auctioned for more than twice as much later in the year. But that would just be asking for trouble. For another look at that record-breaking milestone, click here. Truly amazing!