2017 Casa Lapostolle, Clos Apalta, Colchagua Valley 1x750ml

Vinous 94

The 2017 Red Blend Clos Apalta is a blend of grapes from Apalta: 48% Carmenere, 26% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot and 1% Petit Verdot, aged in new and used French barrels in an 85/15 split. The ripe profile makes it a garnet red in the glass with an open, nuanced aromatic profile of spices, black currant, plum and red currant somewhere between ripe and candied, along with hints of smoke, cigar box and tobacco over a layer of ash. Intense in the mouth, it has fine, juicy tannins with an alcoholic kick that energizes the flow, packaged in a good body with an elegant structure. A wine that grows with each layer and sets a benchmark for the style. [Joaquín Hidalgo, 06/05/2021]

Anticipated maturity: 2021-2032

Robert Parker 95

The 2017 Clos Apalta is the 20th vintage of this wine that was produced with a blend of 48% Carmenere, 26% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot and 1% Petit Verdot from organic and biodynamic certified vineyards on granite soils. It fermented with indigenous yeasts for four to five weeks, with manual punch-down of the cap, mostly in 7,500-liter French oak vats and 18% in new French barrique. Malolactic was in new French oak barrels, and the elevage lasted for 27 months in 85% new barrels and 15% second use. This is always a powerful, big and ripe wine that is regularly 15% alcohol, reflecting a warm and ripe place. The 2017 is no exception, perhaps a riper and more powerful wine than the 2016. It’s still very young and marked by the elevage, with abundant balsamic aromas and notes from the wooda spice and smoke with an ashy touch. It seems quite marked by the character of the Carmenere. The tannins are quite round and polished, and the flavors are pungent and powerful. It’s a full-bodied wine to age in in bottle and enjoy in its 10th birthday with powerful food. 90,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in September 2019. [Luis Gutiérrez, 03/08/2020]

Anticipated maturity: 2022-2030