To step into the cellars of Klein Constantia is to step into a little corner of wine-making history. It was on this farm in South Africa’s Constantia region, perched on a series of undulating hills in the Western Cape, that one of the world’s leading wines was produced 200 years ago.

The wine in question was a sweet wine known as Constantia, or Vin de Constance, which in the 18th century was as sought after and admired as Château Lafite or Château Pétrus are today. It is reputed to have been requested by Napoleon Bonaparte upon his exile to the island of St. Helena and was enjoyed by royalty throughout Europe. Jane Austen and Charles Dickens both mentioned it in their writings.

Its downfall came in the form of two fungal diseases that ripped through the vineyards—first oidium, which at the height of its powers, effects grape ripening; followed by phylloxera, a root-feeding aphid that destroys vines. The effect was devastating. By the end of the 19th century, the wine estate was beset with financial ruin and the wine that only years earlier had delighted the European court vanished.