A toast to 350 years of wine-making

The Cape Winelands
were in festive mood last
week as several estates
mounted special events,
including discounted wine
tastings and restaurant
specials, to celebrate the
350th anniversary of the
introduction of viticulture
to the country.
It was on February 2,
1659 that Jan van Riebeeck,
dispatched seven years earlier
by the Dutch East India
Company to set up a meat
and vegetable replenishment
station in the shadow of Table
Mountain, gave thanks in
his diary for the first wine
produced in South Africa.
Since then, winemaking
has become one of South
Africa’s foremost industries.
The country produced more
than 300 000 litres in 2007
and has established itself
globally as a winemaking
country of renown.