1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Constantia

CONSTANTIA, a district of Cape Colony, in the Cape peninsula, noted for the excellent quality of its wines, the best produced in South Africa. The government wine farm, Groot Constantia, 10 m. S. of Cape Town, contains over 150,000 vines. This and the adjacent farm of High Constantia are the only farms on which the vines yielding the finest wines flourish. The district is also celebrated for the excellence of the fruit it yields. Groot Constantia House is a good example of the Dutch colonial dwelling-houses of the 17th century. It was built (c. 1684) by the governor Simon van der Stell, and named in honour of his wife Constance. Van der Stell also laid out the vineyard, which soon attained a wide reputation. Old Cape Colony, by Mrs A. F. Trotter (London, 1903), contains a plan and sketches of Groot Constantia.