2016 Clos Apalta Petit Clos Colchagua Chile 750 ml

The greatest wines begin with an instinct. In 1994, after 25 years of surveying countless wine regions, Alexandra Marnier Lapostolle and her husband Cyril de Bournet set eyes on Colchagua's Apalta Valley and felt in their bones that it would be the setting for unparalleled grape growing in Chile.

Born into a family that brought the world Grand Marnier and Château Lapostolle in Margaux, it's no surprise Alexandra's inclination towards Apalta was on point. Now, over 25 years since that day, this Bordelaise-inspired 100-point winery has proven time and again that patience and intuition are delicious virtues—ones  we all get to benefit from in Le Petit Clos, the sister brand to the iconic Clos Apalta label. 

Alongside Almaviva, Vinedo Chadwick, and Sena, Clos Apalta is indisputably among the elite in Chile. Le Petit Clos shares the same vineyards, winery, and winemaker, affording us a taste of that luxury at a fraction of the price.

The Clos Apalta vineyards are hugged by the Cordillera hills to the west and the Tinguiririca tributary of the Rapel River to the east. The hills block intense rays as the sun rises and sets, and along with wide diurnal temperature variation and the cooling effect of the tributary, allows for a cooler meso-climate overall. This enables a very slow maturation, so that the grapes are picked at perfection.

In the winery, these hand-picked grapes are treated like royalty. They arrive in small 12-kilogram cases to be sorted, hand-destemmed, and fed into large wooden fermenters. Native yeasts do their magic, and the skins are macerated for six weeks. After aging in 100% new French oak for six months, a rigorous selection process occurs and the wine is blended to achieve complexity and balance. The final wine is then aged in 20% new French oak for an additional 17 months. Unfined and unfiltered, a sense of place is heralded above process as they endeavor to find "the purest expression of land and time." Under Jacques Begarie, their technical director, and world renowned consultant Michel Rolland, Le Petit Clos does not cut a single corner. 

The torch was handed to Alexandra and Cyril's son, Charles-Henri, whom we had a chance to meet not long ago at an event. His personality was as smart as his suit, and his passion for pushing Clos Apalta even farther is nothing short of genetic.

There is hardly a recipe for Le Petit Clos, as each vintage brings with it a new blend. The 2016 is nearly all Cabernet Sauvignon, with a dash of Merlot (4%) and Carménère (1%). The critics united over this wine, ranking it even more highly than previous vintages, with James Suckling raising his score to 96 points and calling it "beautiful, ripe and delicious."