Charles Dickens’ favourite tipple

2012 Vin de Constance, Klein Constantia, Constantia, Western Cape, South Africa (£42, 50cl bottle, Nickolls & Perks, 01384-394518; £195 in bond per six bottles, FarrVintners.com; £198 in bond, BBR.com; £200 in bond, FRW.co.uk; £400 in bond per 12 bottles, BIWine.com).

Matt Day started working at Klein Constantia four years ago, so it has been a very long wait for him to show me the greatest release I have ever tasted from this property. I am delighted to report that the first "full vintage"under Matt is officially "off the scale".

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The wine gives off an insane apricot perfume and there is mind-blowing sweetness here (164 gm/l), but that is underpinned with the most precise acidity imaginable. That pleases me as I have long said that this wine needs more acid and zip to balance the phenomenal sweetness from the muscat grapes.

Matt has achieved this balance of sweetness and acid with characteristic lan. The harvest took a record three months to complete, with 26 passes through the vineyards. And he only pressed 500 litres of juice from each tonne of fruit!

The result is the most focused and the most exquisitely balanced Vin de Constance of all patience is truly a virtue!

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year (MatthewJukes.com).

Matthew Jukes has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006.

He has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website.

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy. His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.