Groot Constantia

This guide to Groot Constantia's wine cellar in Cape Town opens with an unsolved argument: why the sculptor Anton Anreith carved the date 1791 into the cellar's Rococo gable, and whether it marks his own finishing touch or an order from wine farmer Hendrik Cloete, who had just spent fourteen years reviving the estate. You'll hear how Anreith rose from ship's carpenter to the Cape's most admired sculptor, and how he and architect Louis Michel Thibault produced what many still call the finest gable in Cape Dutch architecture. Look up at the gable before you head to the tasting room.