Clos Apalta Le Petit Clos 2018
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Robert
Parker -
James
Suckling - Vinous
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Product Details
Your Rating
Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
2018 vintage gave a generous production, healthy, of excellent flavor, with relatively moderate alcohol levels and more freshness. ng any rain allowing later varieties to be harvested at optimal maturation. It will be remembered as one of the greatest cold vintages of the 21st century in Chile.
Blend: 53% Carmenère, 32% Cabernet Sauvignon 12% Merlot, 3% Petit Verdot
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2018 Le Petit Clos, a second wine born in 2014, was produced with a blend of 53% Carmenere, 32% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Merlot and 3% Petit Verdot from organically and biodynamically certified vineyards even if the bottled doesn't carry the seals. It's ripe and powerful with the Apalta signature, earthy and stony. It fermented with indigenous yeasts in oak vats and matured in French barriques for some 22 months. It's full-bodied with a lush texture and round tannins, a softer version of the 2016.
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James Suckling
A medium-bodied red with blackberry, red-berry and spice aromas and flavors. It’s chewy and polished with a medium finish. Dried flowers to the fruit at the finish. Tight and reserved now. Drink in 2022 and onwards.
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Vinous
The 2018 Le Petit Clos is a blend of 53% Carménère, 32% Cabernet Sauvignon, 12% Merlot and 3% Petit Verdot from Apalta, Colchagua. Dark garnet in hue. The complex nose offers plum jam, hints of smoke, herbs and pepper against a backdrop of cigar box and graphite. A ripe, broad, full-bodied red with precise acidity and a juicy, grippy flow (quite accomplished for the style), it ends with an intense, ripe finish. A red to hold on to.
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Wine Spectator
Well-defined, showing wet stone and floral notes up front, joining red currant and cherry flavors that swell around lively mineral acidity and linger nicely around notes of peppercorn and cinnamon bark. Carmenère, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot.
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Wine Enthusiast
Dried herbs, green bell pepper, and black fruit are aromatic on the nose of this Carmenère-based blend (which also features a good amount of Cabernet Sauvignon and a splash of Merlot and Petit Verdot). A concentrated palate showcases plum, peppercorn, cumin, oregano, joining well-integrated oak flavors. It has supple tannins and a persistent finish with pleasant baking spices.
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Everything starts in 1994 when Alexandra Marnier Lapostolle and her husband Cyril de Bournet first arrived in Chile’s Colchagua Valley. They quickly realized its potential for producing world-class wines. This ideal setting, which was revitalized in 1995, was home to vines originating from pre-phylloxera rootstock brought from Bordeaux in the middle of XIX century. Member of a renowned family that has been dedicated for several generations to the production of high-quality spirits and wines, Alexandra with legendary wine expertise, brought exceptional French winemaking practices to Chile and pioneered the development of fine quality wines from the region. Today it is Charles de Bournet Marnier Lapostolle, seventh generation of the family, who holds the reins of the Winery. Together with him is Jacques Begarie, Technical Director & Winemaker, under the advice of the famous winemaker Michel Rolland, who is personally involved in the whole production of Clos Apalta. In its short history, Clos Apalta wines have consistently ranked highly (90+ points) among reputable wine trade publications, a testament of the rigorous standards implemented at the winery to produce outstanding wines. Clos Apalta's philosophy is as simple as it is ambitious: to express terroir in the wines, looking for excellence, elegance and character in a handcrafted wine that can talk about the amazing place that is the Apalta Valley.
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.