Aloe Tree
Swartland, South Africa
Aloe Tree takes its name and its identity from the spiky, sculptural trees that punctuate the Cape landscape, instantly recognisable to anyone who has driven the back roads of the Western Cape. It's a fitting emblem for a producer whose whole approach revolves around working in step with the surrounding biodiversity, the famous Cape Floral Kingdom that makes this corner of South Africa one of the most botanically rich places on earth. The fruit comes from vines between roughly ten and twenty-five years old, planted on Karoo clay soils that add a touch of body to the wines. The brief is simple and refreshingly honest: well-made, affordable, varietally pure wines that don't try to be anything they're not.
Wines from Aloe Tree
A selection of Aloe Tree wines available through South African Wines.
Swartland
Swartland, 'the black land' in Afrikaans, named for the renosterbos that darkens after rain, rolls out north of Cape Town across the hills around Malmesbury and Riebeek-Kasteel. It's hot, dry, and stubbornly characterful: a place of old bush vines, granite and koffieklip soils, and a community of growers who've made it the most quietly thrilling corner of South African wine. Concentration, freshness, and a wild streak you don't find elsewhere, that's Swartland in a glass.