Alto Vineyards

What a great wine tasting experience. We should know we’ve done scores – probably more than a hundred.
Anyway, the best part was the quality of their wines. We couldn’t help but buy a case of the terrific tasting Vignoles.
No, the best part was finding out that they will ship to Ohio and have a terrific discount on future purchases.

My husband and I traveled all the way from Arkansas to hear Annie Kennedy sing. What a phenomenal experience! Tried the sampler, six wines to taste and a free souvenir glass for only five dollars. We munched on a very reasonable ($ 6) cheese and cracker plate that included a delicious herbed cheese curd with our bottle of Heartland Red (yum). Our friend ordered the chicken flatbread and raved about it! The tasting room is lovely with tons of seating and local art on the walls. I saw many folks with their own picnic baskets to enjoy with their wine which no one objected to. There are two large outdoor patios and the scenery is beautiful. We will be back (especially if Annie comes back to sing)!

This is a great winery. Their tasting is reasonably priced at $ 5 for 6 wines plus a souvenir glass. If you’re not interested in the tasting but don’t know what you want they offer two free tastings on the house. I tried the cheese and crackers with my wine and loved it. Very filling for $ 6. The tasting room is large, modern, and very comfortable. It’s perfect for a large group or an intimate date. This is only my first time here but I will definitely be back.

I’d mark this as one of the highlights of the Shawnee Wine Trail. They have both locally sourced, and Australian sourced grapes in their wines.
Two wines of note that were really quite exceptional. Weiner Dog White and Saluki Red. The former is a nice lightly oaked white that I did enjoy quite a lot. On the dry side how I like them and the oak was very mild so you really tasted the grape.
The walk away smack me down favorite was the Saluki Red, a red table wine blend of Chambourcin, shiraz and some other wine that I forget at the moment. Beautifully balanced dry red, just a hint of tannin and rich fruit flavors. I bought a bottle and smuggled it home to Los Angeles… it was that good.
I really like this place. And I still can’t get over how cheap the tastings were, with generous pours here and every place else we hit that day. Added boner here… the 5 for $ 5 tasting and you get to keep the souvenir wine glass. Woot… its a party.
Now for the bad news. The interstate shipping laws and agreements prohibit IL wines from being shipped to CA. Bootleg it like I did for a memory when you get home.

This was one of our many stops during our wine trail visit. The staff was helpful, friendly and very attentive despite their being a number of people at the bar. She effortlessly engaged everyone with ease and made us feel very at home. She also helped us select several bottles for us to take home. We greatly enjoyed our stop here.

I think this was my fav of all of the wine trail.
Super nice deck with a great view.
Great wines, some of these made of Australian grapes (we all agreed: ours are still the best! And I was genuinely surprised, as I very much like Australian Shiraz.)
Very pleasant service.
Entertainment by Kristin Kearns. Love her!
Thank you for making my last stop on the Southern Illinois Wine Trail memorable and nice.

Went to Alto today with some girlfriends and had a fantastic time. We were taken care of extremely well in the Tasting Room. Matt played a game with us and had us guess the wines we were tasting, which allowed us to taste more than just what the standard fee allows for and we learned a thing or two along the way. The atmosphere is relaxed and casual, the music is not overly in your face, and the couches are quite comfy. In addition, they allowed us to being our own snacks which not all wineries will allow for. It was raining while we were there, but otherwise we would’ve tried out the patio, which looked very inviting and comfortable, with proper seating and shade and a great view. Overall a great stop on our winery weekend and one I would highly recommend to anyone.

The building is quite stark against the country landscape. It is very modern looking and seems Eco-​friendly. Tastings are 1 or 2 free or 5 for $ 5 and you get a glass. I hate when wineries choose to make you pay for samples, to me it doesn’t make business sense. The wines were decent, we got a bottle of the blush to enjoy there. We also got the $ 6 cheese plate, it was good for the two of us. We left with a container of fudge and the Cherry Berry wine, a divine combination. It was too windy to enjoy the outside, which is too bad because it looked beautiful. Probably not on the top of my list to go back, but still a good winery.

Great wines and an outstanding Port! The tasting room was very nicely done. We will absolutely return.

3 is my highest rating for any southern Illinois winery and Alto is the only one to get it. Along with keeping me on the phone when my GPS took a remote «shortcut» their wine was wonderful (making subsequent Shawnee Wine Trail locations pale In comparison). Their staff (Corey) made us comfortable and welcome while juggling phones, owner MTG interruptions and additional customers. It was 90 degrees so too hot to take advantage of their lovely deck for long but made our party long for the opportunity.

We love this place. It is our «must-​go» for all our winery excursions down in Southern IL. We keep trying the other wineries, but generally what happens is we go to one new winery, have some wine, then say «hmmm, not as good as Alto,» then we head over to our old favorite. Their Shawnee Gold is my favorite, and it is a nice sweet wine. They also have excellent drier wines if you prefer those, and their Ports are amazing! Their holiday Open Houses are awesome and they usually have great spreads too. Additionally, they just put up a giant new expansion — a whole building that serves as a giant tasting room/​hangout place. It is super nice. And, rumor has it, they will be serving food soon. SO excited! Their service is always excellent, the pourers are very nice, and their tastings are free. That, to me, says they want you to enjoy your time there and buy some wine :)

One of the oldest wineries in Southern Illinois. The location is beautiful, like most the wineries around. I am not a huge wine fan, mostly beer and spirits, but this place is legit. Lots of variety in many different styles. From bone dry to sweet. I am a port guy, and really like their version. The patio is beautiful, free tasting, charming tasting room/​gift shop, very friendly people. Can’t ask for much more than that. I try to make a stop here whenever I can.

Im a big fan of the Chancellor.
Not to mention that the prices directly through the winery are about 40% cheaper than the liquor stores.
The outside area is beautiful as well. A nice relaxing place to enjoy a glass or bottle of vino.

For me, ranking the vineyards alon the Shawnee Hills Wine Trail mostly comes down to how nice the people are and how much fun he place is. I don’t mean to be a crumudgeon, but I don’t like sweet wines much, and he dry wines of this region just aren’t very good.
Alto vineyards is one of the oldest vineyard along this trail. One of the locals tole me everyone wondered why the hell anyone would want to ope a winery down here when Alto first opened. It’s a fair enough question, since the best wines in the country are NOTHING like the wines around here. Turns out there is a pretty big following for sweet wines, and a lot of those followers are women. As we all know, if Mom’s happy, everybody’s happy, so a wise dad schleps mom down to the Shawnee Hills and shows her a good time.
The pourers at Alto Vineyards are pretty nice, down home folks and that goes a long way in making a visit here fun. The grounds are very well kept, with three separate sitting areas. I’d guess most visitors to this wine trail stop by here because it’s has the most trafficked address on the trail.
So it’s a pretty okay place to stop and try wines that taste pretty much like all the others on the trail. They’d get higher marks with a good sangria or live music… or better yet, a brewery.

So when we rolled into town, Alto Pass was the first stop. What a beautiful spot it is!
Alto Pass Vineyard is a beautiful spot to sit and relax with some wine and yummies to snack on. The porch off the tasting room over looks a beautiful pond and lots of grapes growing all around. The tasting room is nice and they have quite the selection. We stuck to dry wines and tasted their whites which included (to name a few) Chardonel (like a Chardonnay style) Villard Blanc, Vidal Blanc (one of my favs had pear and grapefruit tastes), and Traminette which was so good had to buy a bottle and I drank it that night and I am not normally a white wine gal. Onto the reds… Maybe my new favorite wines were the Chancellor and Chambourcin. The other top notch reds were the Norton, Rocko Red and Dawg House Red. Those last few were not as dry, more semi dry and the names are great. After our tasting we bought a glass of wine and had some cheese and crackers while relaxing on their porch. Lots of wine gifts to buy in the tasting room too. Did I mention the tating was free??? Yum!