Clos Apalta Le Petit Clos 2019

Professional Ratings

• 95 James Suckling
  Aromatic and herbal nose of thyme, bay leaves, currants, blackberries, licorice and pomelo pith. Medium-bodied with a fleshy, delicious and open palate. Ripe tannins. Plush and caressing finish.
• 94 Wine Spectator

  An elegant, open-textured and well-contoured blend, offering alluring balsam, cassis and dark chocolate notes that fold over onto the rich palate. Picks up crushed red currant and espresso-laced berry flavors, which have great depth and linger effortlessly around suave tannins, echoing back to the core flavors.

• 93 Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
  The second wine from Clos Apalta, the 2019 Le Petit Clos was produced with a blend of 49% Carmenere, 30% Merlot, 18% Cabernet Sauvignon and 3% Petit Verdot from granite soils. It fermented with indigenous yeasts with four to five weeks of maceration with manual punchdowns and malolactic in French oak barrels. The élevage was eight months in new barrels and a further 14 months in 50% new oak and 50% second use. It's a ripe and powerful red with 14.5% alcohol and a pH of 3.6. It has a nose of herbs and spices, and it's creamy and lush, with a juicy texture and a full body with an herbal finish. It has mellow acidity and a soft mouthfeel through round and fine tannins.
• 93 Jeb Dunnuck
  The second wine from this notable estate is the 2019 Le Petit Clos, a blend of 49% Carménère, 30% Merlot, 18% Cabernet Sauvignon, and the rest Petit Verdot, raised in 50% new French oak. It has a great bouquet of ripe red and black currants, leafy tobacco, and chocolate, and there's a distinct Bordeaux-like lead pencil character that emerges with time in the glass. Possessing full-bodied richness, a lush, supple, forward mouthfeel, good freshness, and outstanding length, it's one heck of a second wine that should evolve gracefully over the coming decade.
• 92 Decanter
  Wow, deeply scented with a rich nose full of dark chocolate, lots of floral touches, smells sunny and rich. Seriously spiced on the palate, the sweet and dry spice lingers on the tongue spreading out the mouth with crushed peppercorns, juniper, caramel, toasted wood, violets and cherry jam. A lot going on here, strong and bold, quite in your face, giving tons of energy and character still with acidity that doesn't make it heavy and rather plumps up the richness without detracting. Quite woody, you feel the oak in the texture and richness but it's still bouncy and vibrant, good crunchiness, forward, open but with bright freshness. Balanced but by no means a wallflower of a wine. I love the mintiness at the end. A great food wine. They did well to balance the heat from one of the warmest and driest vintages in recent time. 3% Petit Verdot completes the blend.