Alto Cabernet Sauvignon 2001

Dark ruby with a slightly paler rim. Ripe cherries, cigar box, and a hint of mint on the nose. The cherries translate easily onto the palate. Oak and vanilla on the mid-palate. A big, luscious Alto, that is quite a mouthful. It finished long and lingers on. Alto enthusiasts will love this vintage.

It can be enjoyed with or without food. Serve at 18ºC with uncluttered dishes such as fine roast lamb or beef, best quality steak or Chateaubriand. Also partner with herb-crusted roasts, stuffed poultry and thin slices of well-matured, air-dried cheeses like a real Parmigiano.

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variety : Cabernet Sauvignon [ 100% Cabernet Sauvignon ]

winery : Alto Estate

winemaker : Schalk van der Westhuizen

wine of origin : Coastal

analysis : alc : 14.27 % vol rs : 3.26 g/l pH : 3.51 ta : 6.4 g/l

type : Red style : Dry wooded

pack : Bottle closure : Cork

AWARDS

SAA Inflight 2006 - First Class

ageing : All Alto wines are known for their longevity. Although this wine is easily enjoyed at this stage, the fruit backed by the excellent support will carry it for another 8 to 10 years of cellaring.

in the vineyard : A 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from the CS 46 clone, grafted onto R110 rootstock and planted in deep, red, decomposed granite soil with a clay subsoil. The vineyard blocks are situated at 135 - 475 metres above sea level, facing north. They are between 8 and 19 years old. A five-wire fence was selected to trellis the vines which yielded a low 4 - 5 tons the hectare. It was a wet winter. The vines received drip irrigation in addition to the rainfall.

about the harvest: The grapes were hand-picked in March and April 2001 after reaching a Balling of 24 – 25 degrees.

in the cellar : After destalking and crushing, the mash was fermented in stainless-steel tanks at 25 - 27 degrees Celsius, using the selected NT 112 yeast culture. The juice was seperated from the skins after 10 days. After malolactic fermentation, the wine was racked into first-, second- and third-fill French-oak barriques where it spent the next 18 months maturing. After a light sterile sheet-filtering, an egg-white fining was used to “polish” the wine before it was bottled in March 2003.

As with all the Alto wines, this Cabernet Sauvignon was first bottle-matured (20 months in this case) before it has been released.

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