First Cape wine
Primer vino del Cabo
- Date
- 2 de febrero de 1659 · confidence high
- Place
- Wynberg, Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa
- Credited to
- Jan van Riebeeck and the Dutch East India Company
- Field
- Life & health
What it is
Commander Jan van Riebeeck noted in his diary that on 2 February 1659 wine was pressed for the first time from Cape grapes. The vines were planted to prevent sailors' scurvy and started South African winemaking.
The date comes from Van Riebeeck's diary. The location of the first vineyard is the Wynberg (Bosheuvel) area, approximate.
What it led to
- vineyards in Constantia and Stellenbosch with the arrival of Huguenots in 1688
- Constantia wine, famous at European courts
- the South African wine industry, today among the world's top ten