Clos Apalta (Domaines Bournet-Lapostolle)

The winery

Clos Apalta is the Chilean project of the Marnier Lapostolle family, creators of the Grand Marnier liqueur. In 1994 Alexandra Marnier Lapostolle and her husband Cyril de Bournet came to the Apalta valley, in Colchagua, drawn by its old vines, and in 1997 they released the first vintage of the wine that gives the estate its name. Since 2013 the company has been run by their son Charles-Henri de Bournet, seventh generation of the family, together with Andrea León as technical director and the Bordeaux winemaker Michel Rolland, consultant to the house since the first harvest. Clos Apalta is part of Domaines Bournet-Lapostolle, which also makes the Lapostolle wines at its winery in Cunaco, a few kilometers away, with its own visitor center.

The vineyard covers 60 hectares in the shape of an amphitheater at the entrance to the valley, with a southeast exposure unusual in Colchagua and granite soils. The oldest blocks were planted between 1915 and 1920 with plants brought from France, and a significant share is still on its own roots (ungrafted); farming has been certified organic since 2009, and the estate also protects hundreds of hectares of native forest on the surrounding hills. Carménère leads the Clos Apalta blend, joined by Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and a touch of Petit Verdot; it is complemented by Le Petit Clos, the second wine, and Prelude, conceived as the gateway to the house. Clos Apalta 2005 took first place in Wine Spectator's Top 100, and the 2014, 2015 and 2017 vintages received 100 points from James Suckling.

The winery, completed in 2005 to a design by the Chilean architect Roberto Benavente, is dug into the hillside on seven levels and works by gravity: from outside, only a crown of wooden slats shows, evoking the staves of an open barrel. Inside are 21 oak vats arranged in a circle, a barrel room with a wooden vaulted ceiling, a glass tasting table and, on the deepest level, the family's wine library set among granite blocks. Visits are private and by advance booking: a walk through the century-old vineyard, a tour of the winery and the family cellar, or the tour combined with a three-course paired lunch at Clos Apalta Residence, the ten-room Relais & Châteaux hotel with restaurant that the family keeps at the top of the estate.