Winemaker Notes
The 2005 vintage of this wine was ranked #1 on the Wine Spectator's Top 10 Wines of 2008
Clos Apalta is a dark and deep inky purple red color. Still young, but opening towards ripe and expressive red fruit, such as plums,red cherries, dry figs and mocha notes. Sweet spices such as vanilla and clover touch towards the finish. With a concentrated structure, this wine has a around and packed attack followed by a pack of velvety and polished tannins filling the mid palate and a ripeand rich long lasting finish.
Blend: 78% Carmenere, 19% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
A gorgeous wine that deftly balances polished cassis, dark cherry reduction and blueberry notes on a compact frame. This is structured, with silky tannins lining the long finish that lingers on with hints of apple wood, spice box and underbrush. Carmenere, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot.
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James Suckling
This is a ripe red with plum and dark berry character. Full body, soft and juicy tannins and spice and tobacco character. Fresh and linear. A blend of 78% carmenere, 19% cabernet sauvignon and 3% petit verdot.
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Wine Enthusiast
Typically intense, polished and smooth up front, this has concentrated aromas of graphite, cola, wild berry, spice, coconut and wood. It feels full and makes a statement on the palate, where baked, earthy, fully loaded flavors of clove, herb and black fruit hold court. Oaky and spicy on the finish... Cellar Selection.
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.