CLOS APALTA
2014 Casa Lapostolle
| Grapes | Merlot, Carmenère, Cab Sauv |
| Colour | Red |
| Origin | Chile |
| District | Colchagua Valley |
| ABV | 14% |
This was the first 100-point wine from here with such aromas of fresh herbs and dark berry and floral undertones. Hot stone character. Full body, very linear and ultra-fine tannins. The precision and perfection here is impressive, as it has always been. A blend of carmenere, cabernet sauvignon and merlot. Drink or hold. Rating: 100 James Suckling, www.jamessuckling.com (Apr 2018)
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There is much diversity in the soil, and our Clos Apalta comes from colluvial granitic soils, lightly textured with layers of clay.
Vinification/Ageing
Our winemaking philosophy is to reflect the terroir from Apalta by crafting a wine based in Carmenère. A truly hand crafted wine, we nurture our vines and attend to every detail to preserve the potential of the grapes. We hand harvest the fruit in small cases of 14 kilos. The grapes are 100% hand de-stemmed in our Clos Apalta Winery so we maintain complete control of the quality. We fill our French oak vats by gravity. Then nature does its work, allowing native yeasts that slowly ferment the must into wine with temperature control less than 28° C. Macerations lasted for about 4-5 weeks and during all that period we did manual punch downs to extract enough compounds from skins to get the desired structure and concentration. We rack the young new wine straight into 100% new French oak barrels by gravity.
Malolactic happens in barrels, where the wine stays for 24 months, ageing patiently. The wine is bottled by gravity without any treatment or filtration.Winemaker's notes (Jan 2017)
The 2014 Clos Apalta is composed of 48% Carmenère, 31% Cabernet Sauvignon and 21% Merlot and has lots of tannins and some astringency. It really suffers when compared with the 2015, which feels longer and has a different quality of tannins, but I prefer both to the 2013. This matured in 100% new French oak barrels for 26 months. 62,388 bottles were filled in June 2016. Drinking range: 2018 - 2024 Rating: 93 Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate, www.RobertParker.com (Feb 2023)
Casa Lapostolle
The Marnier Lapostolle family is French, and they are the owners of the liqueur Grand Marnier and owners of Chateau de Sancerre in Loire Valley founded Lapostolle in 1994 with the ambition to create world-class wines by combining the superb terroir of Chile with their French winemaking philosophy.
The Clos Apalta winery is the jewel in the crown. It is 170 kilometres south-west of Santiago in the Colchagua Valley. The vineyard is in a horseshoe shape, and high surrounding hills block the sun in both morning and evening, while the river Tinguiririca adds a further cooling effect on the other side, so that the grapes here ripen slowly and evenly. This wine is possibly the absolute pinnacle of Carmenère, on which is is largely based.
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RELATED PRODUCTS
2019 CABERNET SAUVIGNON Grande Reserve Los Vascos
Chile 14.5% Red
Syrah, Carmenère, Cabernet Sauvignon.
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