Winemaker Notes
Lapostolle Cuvée Alexandre Merlot delivers aromas of cherry, strawberry, plum, vanilla, and herbs. The medium-bodied palate is silky and elegant.
Enjoy Cuvée Alexandre Merlot with beet and goat cheese salad, pasta dishes, or poultry such as turkey. Lapostolle Cuvée Alexandre Merlot can also be cellared for several years.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A fresh and vibrant merlot with racy plums, cherries, olives and touches of pencil shavings, iron and cumin. Medium- to full-bodied with fine-grained tannins and a crunchy, fresh finish. Pretty long and fruity. Textbook-quality merlot. Better from 2025.
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Vinous
This 2022 Merlot Cuvée Alexandre is sourced from Apalta in the Colchagua Valley. It delivers the expected ripe varietal character, with cherry and spices set against a balsamic backdrop. Dry and juicy, with reactive, structured tannins, it leaves a fairly clingy mouthfeel with a lingering balsamic whiff. It will certainly darken in bottle, but it will also soften over time.
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Wine Enthusiast
Hailing from Apalta, this wine starts with aromas of ripe bramble berries. It was aged 14 months in oak barrels and, as a result, the fresh palate showcases bright fruit flavors and light notes of toasted oak, creating a balanced and concentrated mouthfeel.
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.
With generous fruit and supple tannins, Merlot is made in a range of styles from everyday-drinking to world-renowned and age-worthy. Merlot is the dominant variety in the wines from Bordeaux’s Right Bank regions of St. Emilion and Pomerol, where it is often blended with Cabernet Franc to spectacular result. Merlot also frequently shines on its own, particularly in California’s Napa Valley. Somm Secret—As much as Miles derided the variety in the 2004 film, Sideways, his prized 1961 Château Cheval Blanc is actually a blend of Merlot and 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.