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.