Winemaker Notes
Number 3 of Wine Spectator's 2003 Top 100 Wines!
Color: The color is intense and the density is readily apparent.
Aroma: The bouquet provides an explosion of red fruit, blackberry, black cherry and vibrant notes of raspeberry. The oak aging contributes a toasted vanilla and balsamic-like element in the nose. Then, instead of dispersing, all the scents blend together to give greater complexity, precious wood and cedar notes.
Flavor: In the mouth, the first impression is density and volume. The wine is round, full and very concentrated. Slowly, a gentle tannic structure appears which provides the wine with a solid and well-structured character. The finish is long, velvety and silky.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
This is a fabulous bottle with ripe fruit and chocolate character. Full body and so rich and decadent. Old style yet balanced. A blend of 65% merlot/carmenere and 35% cabernet sauvignon.
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Wine Spectator
A stunner. This coats the palate with cassis, blackberry and boysenberry fruit, but stays focused and pure, with vanilla, spice and toast notes chiming in on the palate for added effect. The finish then resonates with purity. A thoroughly seductive wine that glides effortlessly, despite its obvious power and depth. Carmenère, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. Drink now through 2009.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Clos Apalta luxury cuvee, primarily based on an old vine, non-irrigated Carmenere parcel, remains one of Chile’s standard-bearers. Herbal, minty aromas of candied black fruits are found in the aromatic profile of the 2000 Clos Apalta. A feminine, detailed wine, it exhibits a medium to full-bodied character filled with pure red as well as black cherry fruit. Fresh, lively, and lush, this outstanding effort displays a slightly firm finish that will require some cellaring. Anticipated maturity: 2007-2012.
Clos Apalta is a state-of-the-art winery built to amplify Apalta's unique terroir through a lens of legendary French winemaking expertise. Under the watchful eye of Charles-Henri de Bournet and winemaker Andrea Leon, Clos Apalta remains among South America's most iconic producers.
The revolutionary six-story winery is built into the granite hillside of 'The Clos' in the proportions of the Golden Ratio, representing perfect natural equilibrium. In this way, the winery itself is an element of their minimal-intervention winemaking philosophy: hand harvesting, gentle extraction, wild yeast fermentation, minimal filtration, and 100% gravity-fed from the sorting table to the cellar.
“My mother, Alexandra Marnier Lapostolle, always dreamt of crafting the perfect wine. She spent years in search of an exceptional terroir to create a unique wine which would come to take its place as one of the best in the world. Having crossed several continents, she found the picture-perfect location of the Apalta Valley. She let the rolling mountains and sunlit air of the Apalta Valley speak to her, guessed the extraordinary potential, and tamed it. Clos Apalta was thus born, an enchanting wine with a shimmering texture and complexity that stimulates the senses and excites the imagination.” - Charles-Henri de Bournet
One of the world’s most classic and popular styles of red wine, Bordeaux-inspired blends have spread from their homeland in France to nearly every corner of the New World. Typically based on either Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot and supported by Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot, the best of these are densely hued, fragrant, full of fruit and boast a structure that begs for cellar time. Somm Secret—Blends from Bordeaux are generally earthier compared to those from the New World, which tend to be fruit-dominant.
Well-regarded for intense and exceptionally high quality red wines, the Colchagua Valley is situated in the southern part of Chile’s Rapel Valley, with many of the best vineyards lying in the foothills of the Coastal Range.
Heavy French investment and cutting-edge technology in both the vineyard and the winery has been a boon to the local viticultural industry, which already laid claim to ancient vines and a textbook Mediterranean climate.
The warm, dry growing season in the Colchagua Valley favors robust reds made from Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenère, Malbec and Syrah—in fact, some of Chile’s very best are made here. A small amount of good white wine is produced from Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.