Lapostolle Clos Apalta

Wine information: Lapostolle was founded by Alexandra Marnier Lapostolle and her husband Cyril de Bournet in 1994. The Marnier Lapostolle family, founders and owners of the world-renowned liqueur Grand Marnier, is famous for producing spirits and liqueurs, but the family has also been involved in winemaking for generations. In creating Lapostolle, the family has pursued the same uncompromising approach to quality that made Grand Marnier a global success. Its objective is as simple as it is ambitious: to create world-class wines using French expertise and the superb terroirs of Chile Today, Lapostolle owns 370 hectares in three different vineyards and produce a total of 200.000 cases spread over Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Carmenère, and Syrah. Lapostolle winery is located in the town of Cunaco, right next to Santa Cruz. It is the original winery, where Lapostolle was founded in 1994 and today it is here where both the Casa and Cuvée Alexandre wines are produced. With a traditional Chilean old hacienda style, it has a production capacity of 3,300,000 litres in stainless steel and French oak tanks, and more than 3.500 French Oak Barrels. After many years of hard work at Lapostolle, they finally completed the organic certification process for all our three vineyard properties. On September 30, 2011, the registered and accredited German-based environmental certification company CERES – Certification of Environmental Standards – authorized all Lapostolle estates in compliance with Chilean, North American, and European required standard. Today all three of Lapostolle's estates – Atalayas, Las Kuras and Apalta – do not use any artificial fertilizers, chemical pesticides, herbicides, plant growth regulators or genetically modified organisms. Instead they have integrated animals, bees, organic compost, recycling and the proper treatment of water, among many other tactics, to fulfill our vineyard management and winemaking duties. Lapostolle have just release the Cuvée Alexandre Syrah Los Kuras 2009, the inaugural wine from the portfolio to be officially certified “Made with Organic Grapes".

Clos Apalta 2009 is a blend of 78% Carmenère; 19% Cabernet Sauvignon and 3% Petit Verdot. The grapes were 100% hand de-stemmed in the Clos Apalta Winery to maintain complete control of the quality. The French oak vats are fed by gravity. Then nature does its work, using native yeasts that slowly ferment the must into wine with temperature control less than 28° C. Maceration lasts for about 4-5 weeks and during all that period there are manual punch downs of the cap to extract enough compounds from skins and seeds to get the desired structure and concentration. The new young wine is racked straight into 100% new French oak barrels by gravity. Malolactic fermentation happens in barrels, where the wine stays for 24 months, ageing patiently. The wine is bottled by gravity without any treatment or filtration.

Tasting Notes: Lapostolle Clos Apalta as a dark and deep inky purple red colour. The nose is still young, but opening towards ripe and expressive red fruit, such as plums, red cherries, dry figs and mocha notes. Sweet spices such as vanilla and clover touch towards the finish. The palate has a concentrated structure, this wine has a around and packed attack followed by a pack of velvety and polished tannins filling the mid palate and a ripe and rich long lasting finish.

Food & Wine match: Ideal companion for game, lamb, and entrecote fillet. Also good with rich cocoa chocolate deserts. Open and leave to breathe for a couple of hours or carefully decant for minimum 1 hour and enjoy at room temperature; 16 to 18ºC (60 to 65°F).

 
     

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