Winemaker Notes
The Lapostolle Cuvee Alexandre Carmenere is an intense purple red color. Complex aromas with red and black fruit such as maqui berry and spices such as red pepper, vanilla and dill. The palate is full, of medium acidity and round tannins with fruit such as sarsaparilla and maqui berry. Medium long finish.
Ideal for dishes such as rabbit roulade with mint and apricot or four-cheese pasta with truffles with grated truffles.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Intense carmenere aromas of crushed dark berries and cherries with dried flowers that follow through to a medium to full body with firm, silky tannins and a racy finish. Drink or hold.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The intensely varietal 2019 Cuvée Alexandre Carmenère has pungent aromas and flavors, cracked black peppercorns, cigar ash, tea and tobacco leaves. It contains 12% Syrah in the blend, which probably rounds things up. It's medium to full-bodied with fine-grained, abundant tannins. It's powerful and balanced.
Lapostolle was founded in 1994 by Alexandra Marnier Lapostolle and her husband Cyril de Bournet upon their discovery of a unique clos in the Apalta Valley sheltering 100-year-old pre-phylloxera vines. They quickly realized its potential for producing world-class wines and embarked on their family’s next chapter in the New World. Alexandra brought generations of French winemaking tradition and expertise to the rugged landscape of the Colchagua Valley.
Today, Charles de Bournet, the seventh generation, leads the winery in its newest chapter of innovation, punctuated by the official recognition of the Apalta DO in 2018. Together with Andrea León, Technical Director & Winemaker, Lapostolle continue to craft wines that honor the winery’s credo: French in essence, Chilean by birth.
Dark, full-bodied and herbaceous with a spicy kick, Carménère found great success with its move to Chile in the mid-19th century. However, the variety went a bit undercover until 1994 when many plantings previously thought to be Merlot, were profiled as Carménère. Somm Secret— Carménère is both a progeny and a great-grandchild of the similarly flavored Cabernet Franc.
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.