2015 Clos Apalta Le Petit Clos Colchagua Chile 750 ml

Expressing One of the World’s Top Terroirs

What does the best wine talent in Napa and Bordeaux do in the offseason, while vines are slumbering and the cellar is quiet? They head to the Southern Hemisphere, where land is still affordable and expertise is harder to come by.

The 100-point team behind Clos Apalta has been doing that for decades, and their estate now represents some of the best value Cabernet on the planet, which marries the richness of Napa Valley’s iconic labels with spicy Bordeaux intrigue, all at a price that leaves their competitors in the dust. In fact, the estate has been led by Bordeaux-trained experts: first,  Michel Friou of Château Margaux, and now by winemaker Jacques Begarie of Bordeaux powerhouse Dourthe.

Cultivated in the North-facing Condor de Apalta Vineyard in the Colchagua Valley, about 105 miles southwest of Santiago, the region is an epicenter for investment from vintners in the know, like the Bournet Lapostolle family, also behind Lapostolle wines and Gran Marnier. Their motto, “French in Essence, Chilean by Birth,” is absolutely taste-able in their full-bodied opulent reds.

Their world-class vineyard benefits from warm sunny days and cool nights, which allows the grapes to ripen fully yet maintain their crucial acidity for freshness, structure, and incredible longevity. Apalta, in fact, stands as a benchmark for the heights that Colchagua can achieve: Its semi-dry Mediterranean climate is utterly perfect for Bordeaux-style blends like Le Petit Clos.  Add to that the fact that it was planted in 1920, and you have a recipe for the kind of concentrated, expressive berries that vineyards all over the world strive for yet rarely achieve.

In 2015—a vintage that Wine Enthusiast called “textbook”—the vineyard had the chance to express the full range of its remarkable character. After a “warm, dry, and uncomplicated” growing season, the fruit was hand harvested into 31-pound bins in order to ensure that each and every precious individual berry arrived at the winery in pristine condition. There, it was de-stemmed by hand, fermented using native yeast in French-oak vats, aged for 8 months in new French-oak barrels, and bottled without filtration or being subjected to any treatment that could possibly obscure the majesty of this phenomenal wine.

All of that work has resulted in a wine that stands as a ringing testament to the otherworldly elegance and power that the Condor de Apalta vineyard provides. Unsurprisingly for a wine of this pedigree in a great vintage, this blend of 40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Carmenere, 28% Merlot, and 2% Petit Verdot has set the critical world on fire. James Suckling, in his effusive 95-point review, lauded its “full body…powerful tannins and density.” Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate awarded it 93 points and called the Petit Clos “a wine of structure and good balance in the manner of their [other recent] concentrated and powerful vintages.” Wine Spectator described it as “lithe,” “minerally,” and “focused” in their 92-point review.