Last month’s sale of Klein Constantia to two Cape Argus cyclists plots a new data point on the sparse graph of historic land sales in the Cape. My initial guess of €20 million plus R60 million overdraft seems to have been not too far off the money with my best estimate at the minute revised to R130 million plus R90 million to the bank or R220 million for 82ha of vineyards on a 146ha estate.

'his' and 'hers' at historic Klein Constantia

This figure probably includes a fair amount of unsold stock and there are probably a couple of residential stands at the bottom of the estate that can be excised to reduce the price by a couple of bar. But it looks like our bicycle bankers – one of whom, Charles Harman, until recently head of UK investment banking at JP Morgan Cazenove, may even have been stockbroker to the Queen – paid something approaching R2.5 million per hectare of vineyard.

So no fire sale this and a welcome boost of confidence for the whole SA wine industry. If Klein vineyards are worth R2.5 bar a hectare, how much for Groot (called Groote by Wine Spectator magazine) Constantia, an estate so popular with the 200 000 annual Chinese visitors, the tasting room is nicknamed Beijing Central Station. As prices of Château Lafite prove on a regular basis, the market for icons of western wine lies in the east. Perhaps Pam Golding should pack for Peking.

PS. e-mail received from Lowell Jooste this morning: “We decided to keep the sale price as a private matter but can confirm that KC had no borrowings.”