New Arrivals
Advanced Search
wine regions
quick links

Clos Apalta 2014

Casa Lapostolle

Excel download

View All Vintages of this Wine

Units Size Case size GBP Price: Quantities Buy
Tasting Notes

48% Carmenère, 31% Cabernet Sauvignon, 21% Merlot. Vivid purple colour, dark chocolate and plum on the nose with rather too much extraction giving an overbearing texture and fruit intensity. It's impressive, but the loudness could soon become deafening.

Score: 17

Richard Hemming, JancisRobinson.com Maturity: 2018-2024 14 September 2017

A blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenere and Petit Verdot. It took just a few harvests before the Marnier Lapostolle family realised the potential of the Apalta terroir after founding its Colchagua winery in 1994. An excellent 1997 vintage led to a special bottling, and Clos Apalta was born. The grapes are sourced from two blocks of old Carmenere and Cabernet Sauvignon planted in 1920 and 1940, along with Merlot planted on hillside vineyards from 1997. In 2005 Clos Apalta was given its own gravity-flow winery, with hand-destemming and fermentation in small French oak vats. In 2008, the Apalta vineyard was certified organic and in 2011 biodynamic. ‘The philosophy is simple,’ says Charles de Bournet Marnier-Lapostolle: ‘to make world-class wines using our French know-how of generations in wine and spirit production, together with the unique Chilean terroir.’ With cedar and liquorice spicy aromas, this supple-textured, richly concentrated red is fleshed out by powerful, cassis opulence framed by a reprise of polished French oak and supported by a muscular structure.

Score: 94

Decanter, Decanter.com Maturity: 2018-2027 01 June 2017

An extremely aromatic and focused Clos Apalta with blackberry, blueberry, floral and hot stone character. Full body, very linear and ultra-fine tannins. Focused and tight. Precise and long. This is the most polished and beautiful definition of this wine ever. You want to drink it now but better in 2020. A blend of carmenere, cabernet sauvignon and merlot. A Chilean wine from Colchagua Valley, Clos Apalta Valle de Apalta may be lesser known — in comparison to Bordeaux’s Château Lafite Rothschild, Tuscany’s Sassicaia or California’s Opus One — but it has been awarded perfect 100 points for both the 2014 and 2015 vintages. In hindsight, there’s no doubt that Clos Apalta is one of the world’s greatest red wines. Expressive and complex in flavor, both vintages are blessed with the balance and precision essential for 100 points.

Score: 100

James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com 29 May 2017