Shiraz

Excellent with red meat dishes like spicy lamb or grilled sirloin or rump steak. It also pairs well with Venison dishes like Springbok carpaccio.

2020 was a normal harvest season, we had a below average rainfall and good, dry ripening conditions with supplementary irrigation for our grapes to reach optimal ripeness. The grapes for this wine came from vineyards planted in decomposed Table Mountain Sandstone with a clay underlayer on a north westerly slope, situated some 100 m to 150 m above sea level. The vines are trellised on a seven-wire trellising system. They yielded 8 tons per hectare.

After malolactic fermentation, the wine was aged in wood for 14 months, using a combination of first, second and third fill French oak barrels.

The grapes were harvested by hand at 23.5 to 25 Balling in mid March. After de stalking and crushing, the juice was fermented for 10 days on the skins in stainless steel tanks at 25 to 27 C. 10% of the blend was whole bunch fermented separately and blended back to the final wine. We uses a pump over system.

Alto is a historic Stellenbosch wine estate dedicated exclusively to red wine, with vineyards planted on the elevated slopes of the Helderberg since 1919. Best known for Cabernet Sauvignon and its classic red blends, Alto has built a century-long reputation for structured, full-bodied South African reds with impressive ageing potential.