Clos Apalta 2008
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Product Details
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
The 2005 vintage of this wine was ranked #1 on the Wine Spectator's Top 10 Wines of 2008
Deep purple inky red color. On the nose, focused, with a very special purity of fresh black and red fruit and elegant herbs aromas. Elegant and balance on the palate with silky and juicy tannins. More fruit flavors and a very long finish.
Open and leave to breathe for a couple of hours or carefully decant for minimum 1 hour and enjoy at room temperature; 60 to 65 F. Ideal companion for game, lamb, and entrecote fillet. Also good with rich cocoa chocolate deserts.
Blend: 73% Carmenere, 17% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Merlot
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Clos Apalta, depending on your point of view, is arguably Chile's best wine. And this vintage is outstanding! Earth, minty spice, ripe berry, minerality and smoky aromas cover the bases. It's superbly structured, with a fine texture and depth. Tastes lush and complex, with blackberry, creme de cassis, fine herbs and tobacco. Finishes classy.
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James Suckling
This is linear and tight with freshness and intensity. Medium-to-full body, bright acidity and focus. Love the finish. So right now. A blend of 73% carmenere, 17% cabernet sauvignon and 10% merlot.
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Wine Spectator
Fine-tuned and expressive, yet focused, this red has terrific display of dark, racy blackberry, boysenberry and braised fig flavors finely woven with spice, mesquite and cured olive hints. Silky tannins frame the long finish, with an aftertaste of fruit and mocha. Carmenère, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Drink now through 2017. Tasted twice, with consistent notes. 4,771 cases made.
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Wine & Spirits
A blend based on old-vine carmenere, this latest vintage of Clos Apalta is faithful to its style: a tremendously ripe wine full of fig flavors, fresh roasted coffee and chestnut scents. The structure is as big as it is powerful, and though the texture is youthfully rough, there's so much concentration of flavor that the astringency moves to the background. This is built to cellar, or to decant for braised lamb.
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Wine
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.