2021 Casa Lapostolle - Valle de Colchagua Clos Apalta (750ml)

#6 on Wine Spectator's Top 100 of 2025

Clos Apalta was born from the vision of Alexandra Marnier Lapostolle, heir to the Grand Marnier family, and her husband Cyril de Bournet, who founded Casa Lapostolle in 1994 after searching across continents for a terroir capable of producing a world class wine. They found it in the Apalta Valley, a horseshoe of granite hillside within Colchagua where century-old vines grew undisturbed. The estate's six-story winery is built directly into that granite slope, its proportions based on the Golden Ratio, reflecting a minimal-intervention philosophy that favors hand harvesting, wild yeast fermentation, and gentle extraction throughout the winemaking process.

This vintage is a blend of seventy-five percent Carménère with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot filling out the remainder, sourced from vines within the Apalta property, some planted between 1915 and 1940. The vineyard is farmed organically and biodynamically, hand harvested, and fermented partly in large French oak vats and partly in barrel, with malolactic fermentation completed in new French oak. The wine then ages for twenty four months in French oak barrels, roughly two-thirds of them new, before bottling without fining or filtration.

Deep purple in the glass, this wine offers layered aromas of graphite, dried plum, and blackberry marmalade, joined by mint, wild herbs, and a savory green pepper edge. The palate is plush and full, carrying fine, well-integrated tannins and lively acidity through a long finish. It pairs naturally with grilled steak, braised short rib, or aged gouda.