UK priests drank SA's oldest wine

2013-01-13 22:50

Johannesburg - A fragment of a bottle of Constantia Wyn, the oldest wine produced in South Africa, shows it was apparently drunk by British clergymen in the 1800s, according to a report on Sunday.

The Sunday Times reported that the curator of a museum in Somerset, England, discovered a fragment of glass emblazoned with the words "Constantia Wyn" among medieval pottery shards near the museum.

"I thought it was a woman's name," Barry Lane told Groot Constantia general manager Jean Naude in an e-mail last month.

Using the internet search engine, Google, Lane found the website of the wine producer.

Naude said the old wine, whose enthusiasts included Napoleon Bonaparte and King Louis Philippe I of France, was South Africa's first major export.

"It is proof that our wine was consumed across the globe in the early 1800s."

- SAPA