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B-21 Top Recommendation
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“Bright, brooding and intense”
Georgina Hindle, Decanter
Sourced from the same vineyard as its iconic flagship cuvee, the rich 95 pt. 2020 Clos Apalta Le Petit Clos boasts fresh, vibrant dark fruit hinting of cedar and spice and soft, plush tannins on a long-lived finish, a luscious Bordeaux-inspired blend described as “one heck of a second wine” by Jeb Dunnuck expertly crafted by the Clos Apalta team for an unbeatable value price.
Commissioned by owner and Grand Marnier heiress Alexandra Marnier Lapostolle, the stunning Clos Apalta winery in Santa Cruz is an architectural marvel, a spectacular seven level underground complex built into the granite hillside, its cylindrical roof surrounded by wooden slats depicting the staves of an open air barrel and the excavated rock repurposed throughout the structure from floor tiles in the gravity fed cellars to a rooftop sundial. Established in 1997 to craft a world class wine in Chile’s Colchagua Valley, Clos Apalta founders Alexandra Marnier Lapostolle and her husband Cyril de Bournet hired renowned French oenologist Michel Rolland to produce a uniquely Chilean blend of the indigenous Carmenere with Bordeaux varietals crafted with French winemaking expertise, garnering unanimous acclaim over the next decades including becoming the only South American wine ever to garner the coveted #1 spot on the Wine Spectator’s Top 100. First crafting the second wine in 2014 as a youthful expression of the Clos Apalta terroir, winemaker Jacques Begarie sourced the 2020 Le Petit Clos from a mix of mostly younger vines planted in the granite soils of the estate’s organically and biodynamically farmed El Condor vineyard, its unique microclimate in the shadow of the towering Cordillera Mountains creating optimal conditions for ripening Carmenere while maintaining its freshness and acidity. Blending 40% Carmenere, 38% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Merlot and 3% Petit Verdot, Begarie aged the elegant 2020 Clos Apalta Le Petit Clos for 26 months in a mix of 53% new French oak barrels and 47% in second use French oak barrels, bottling it without filtering or fining to reveal fresh, luscious fruit hinting of peppery spice with bright acidity and outstanding length promising to age gracefully over the next decade.
Reflecting its exceptional Chilean terroir, the lush and powerful 95 pt. 2020 Clos Apalta Le Petit Clos is a delicious and enticing second wine crafted with same meticulous attention to detail as the iconic Clos Apalta at a fraction of the price, a terrific opportunity for Clos Apalta collectors and fans of top tier Chilean reds to pull the cork more often. |
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A beautiful delivery of Petit Clos with spiced black cherries, cassis, olives and some red capsicums to the nose. Chalky tannins are densely packed on the medium- to full-bodied palate. Tight, structured and fine-grained. Very long. Drink or hold.
95 points, Zekun Shuai, James Suckling (Apr 2023)
The 2020 Blend Le Petit Clos is a mix of mostly Carménère and Cabernet Sauvignon from Apalta, Colchagua. Dark garnet red in hue. The complex nose offers plum jam, hints of sweet spice, herbs and pepper against a backdrop of cigar box, graphite and a whiff of violets. A ripe, broad, full-bodied red with precise acidity and a juicy, grippy flow, the finish is intense and complex. The 2020 vintage is notably lean compared to other vintages.
94 points, Joaquín Hidalgo, Vinous (Jun 2023)
The second wine from Clos Apalta, the 2020 Le Petit Clos, was produced with the grapes from younger vines and in a different proportion than in the grand vins; it's a blend of 40% Carmenere, 38% Cabernet Sauvignon, 19% Merlot and 3% Petit Verdot from their granite soils in the warm Apalta valley from a warm and ripe year. The wine has the lush and ripe signature, with 15% alcohol, decadent and showy, with a nose of violets and camphor, ripe berries, herbs and spices and integrated oak. It fermented with indigenous yeasts, with five to six weeks of maceration, manual punch-downs and malolactic in French oak barrels. The élevage was 26 months in 53% new oak and 47% second use oak. It has the velvety tannins from a warm vintage—fine-grained and abundant—with a long finish with a bitter twist. 77,580 bottles produced. It was bottled in July 2022.
93 points, Luis Gutiérrez, Wine Advocate (Aug 2023)
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