The Reds of Constantia: Cool-Climate Bordeaux & Syrah

Here's a bet worth making. On your Constantia tasting, order a red — and watch it outshine wines twice its reputation.

The whites get the headlines and the sweet legend gets the postcards, so almost everyone treats Constantia as a white-wine valley and stops there. That's a mistake, and it's the kind of mistake that leaves the best-value glass on the table. Up on the higher, warmer slopes, the same cool valley grows reds with a freshness and perfume most South African reds spend a fortune trying to fake. This is the chapter that fills your glass the rest of the day forgets.

The cold that sharpens Constantia's whites also lifts its reds. These aren't Cape blockbusters — they're fresher, finer, and more surprising than that.

Cool-climate Bordeaux, the valley's real red story

Start with the blends, because they're the backbone. Constantia's signature red is the Cape Bordeaux blend — Cabernet Sauvignon leading a cast of Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Malbec — but grown in conditions no warm district can copy. The cool, late ripening the last two chapters described doesn't only save the whites' acidity; it keeps the reds aromatic and lifted, holds the alcohol down, and trades brute power for perfume and grip.

Constantia Glen is the estate that made this its whole identity. Planted high on the slopes where it's a touch warmer than the valley floor but still properly cool, it builds its reputation on Bordeaux-style blends — a five-variety flagship and a lighter three-variety sibling — that drink like a good, restrained Bordeaux vintage rather than a Cape heavyweight. Buitenverwachting makes a serious, age-worthy Bordeaux blend of its own, and Groot Constantia — the founding farm — turns out a Cabernet-led reserve red alongside its history. Even Steenberg, the white-and-bubbles specialist, keeps a hand in reds, including a rare cool-climate Nebbiolo that tells you how experimental this valley is willing to get.

The Syrah surprise

Then there's the grape that's quietly become Constantia's most exciting red. Syrah — Shiraz on some labels — loves a cool site, and when it gets one it drops the jammy warmth people expect and turns peppery, floral and savoury, far closer to the northern Rhône than to the Cape norm.

Eagles' Nest is the name here, full stop. Perched on steep upper slopes, it's built much of its reputation on a cool-climate Shiraz that has become one of the valley's most sought-after bottles — spicy, structured, unmistakably grown somewhere cold. Its Merlot and Viognier are worth a look too, but the Shiraz is the one to seek out. For the grape across South Africa — where else does it well, and how the styles diverge — the South African Syrah treatise has the full picture; Constantia's contribution is this cool, peppery, high-slope accent. Higher still, boutique Beau Constantia makes polished modern red blends from some of the loftiest vineyards in the valley, with a view to match.

Where to taste them

The reds aren't spread evenly — they cluster on the higher ground, which makes them easy to build a tasting around. Constantia Glen for the Bordeaux blends and one of the great valley views; Eagles' Nest for the Syrah; Beau Constantia for the modern blends and the highest lookout of the lot. String those three together and you've had a red-focused afternoon that most visitors never even realise is on offer — proof that Constantia is a two-colour valley, not a one-trick one.

Don't force it, though. If whites are your love, let them lead. But leave room for one red, because ordering only Sauvignon here is like visiting a great restaurant and eating only the starter.

You've now got the whole cellar in your head: the sweet legend, the taut whites, and the cool reds hiding up the slopes. Which raises the only question left — with nine estates in one compact valley, whose door do you actually knock on?

That's the next chapter. Part 7 — The Best Constantia Wineries to Visit turns everything you've learned about the wine into a plan for the day: the estates sorted by what you came for — the history, the famous sweet pour, the long lunch, the view, the whites, the reds — so you can pick the two or three that fit your visit and skip the rest without a second thought.