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Petit Clos (2nd wine of Clos Apalta) 2020

Casa Lapostolle

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Tasting Notes

Clear spice, fragrant aromatic frame, showing liqourice, cloves and incense. This was clearly a warm year, with high spice running alongside sweet blackberry and chocolate notes. Dry finish, plenty of energy and grip. This is from vines on south-facing slopes, mitigating the heat of the vintage. Long and slow fermentation, 50% new oak for ageing, with the cellar selection for Petit Clos happening in the cellar after 12 months of ageing, almost always from the younger plantings. Bottled without fining or filtration, no need to wait too long to crack open but will beneft from a long decant.

Score: 92

Jane Anson, JaneAnson.com Maturity: 2024+ 01 September 2023

The second wine from Clos Apalta, the 2020 Le Petit Clos, was produced with the grapes from younger vines and in a different proportion than in the grand vins; it's a blend of 40% Carmenere, 38% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Merlot and 3% Petit Verdot from their granite soils in the warm Apalta valley from a warm and ripe year. The wine has the lush and ripe signature, with 15% alcohol, decadent and showy, with a nose of violets and camphor, ripe berries, herbs and spices and integrated oak. It fermented with indigenous yeasts, with five to six weeks of maceration, manual punch-downs and malolactic in French oak barrels. The élevage was 26 months in 53% new oak and 47% second use oak. It has the velvety tannins from a warm vintage—fine-grained and abundant—with a long finish with a bitter twist.

Score: 93

Luis Gutiérrez, Wine Advocate, RobertParker.com Maturity: 2024 - 2030 31 August 2023

Bright, brooding and intense on the nose; dark, heady and ripe black fruits with spiced edges and a subtle florality. Smooth and succulent but punchy on the palate, tannins are silky and well integrated and do well to underpin the fruitiness and liveliness of the expression. As usual Carmenere is the star with 40% of the blend alongside 38% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Merlot and 3% Petit Verdot. Youthful and exuberant, the team kept leaves on the vines and natural cover crops to cope with the sunlight, heat and lack of water in 2020, and despite the 15% alcohol this has 3.59pH with acidity that lifts the palate and avoids any heaviness. Rich but sleek, this is full of red cherries, cedar spice, soft herbal touches and finishes with a menthol freshness that is lovely. Will improve with age but great for mid-term drinking to enjoy the fresh vibrancy. Ageing 26 months in 225l French oak barrels, 53% new, 42% two years old. From this vintage, the bottles are now made in Chile and are 10% lighter in a bid to increase sustainability. Winemaker Andrea Leon.

Score: 93

Decanter, Decanter.com Maturity: 2025 - 2035 01 August 2023

The 2020 Blend Le Petit Clos is a mix of mostly Carménère and Cabernet Sauvignon from Apalta, Colchagua. Dark garnet red in hue. The complex nose offers plum jam, hints of sweet spice, herbs and pepper against a backdrop of cigar box, graphite and a whiff of violets. A ripe, broad, full-bodied red with precise acidity and a juicy, grippy flow, the finish is intense and complex. The 2020 vintage is notably lean compared to other vintages.

Score: 94

Joaquin Hidalgo, Vinous.com Maturity: 2025 - 2040 01 June 2023

A beautiful delivery of Petit Clos with spiced black cherries, cassis, olives and some red capsicums to the nose. Chalky tannins are densely packed on the medium- to full-bodied palate. Tight, structured and fine-grained. Very long. Drink or hold.

Score: 95

James Suckling, JamesSuckling.com Maturity: 2023+ 10 February 2023