Beau Constantia

This guide to Beau Constantia above the Constantia valley traces how a burned-out goat farm on the Vlakkenberg mountainside became a winery and terrace restaurant. It follows Pierre and Cecily du Preez, who bought the fire-scorched land in 2002, and farm manager Japie Bronn, who helped them terrace some of the steepest vineyard slopes in the Cape and plant vines by hand. The vines are still trimmed and picked entirely by hand, on ground too vertical for machinery.