Clos Apalta 2017 is a stunning wine with complex aromas of redcurrant, raspberry, wild strawberries, and black olives, underlined by soft, silky tannins. The full-bodied palate features layers of blackcurrant, liquorice, and a long, taut finish that reveals exquisite tannins. Produced in a warm vintage marked by extreme conditions, it offers intense color and deep fruit flavors. The wine is structured, elegant, and built to age beautifully, making it an exceptional choice for long-term cellaring.

Jamessuckling.com | JS 100
Published: Apr 17, 2020

What a stunning nose of crushed berries, fresh flowers, sandalwood and light vineyard dust. Black olives, too. Very complex. Full-bodied with a beautiful, dense palate of blackberries, chocolate, walnuts and cigar box. Fantastic length and composure. The tannin just rolls over the palate. Very structured. The most classically structured wine ever from here. Goes on for minutes. Outrageous and so polished. A blend of 48% carmenere, 26% cabernet sauvignon, 25% merlot and 1% petit verdot. Try after 2025.

The Wine Advocate | RP 95
Published: Aug 31, 2020
Drink: 2020-2030 

The 2017 Clos Apalta is the 20th vintage of this wine that was produced with a blend of 48% Carmenere, 26% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot and 1% Petit Verdot from organic and biodynamic certified vineyards on granite soils. It fermented with indigenous yeasts for four to five weeks, with manual punch-down of the cap, mostly in 7,500-liter French oak vats and 18% in new French barrique. Malolactic was in new French oak barrels, and the levage lasted for 27 months in 85% new barrels and 15% second use. This is always a powerful, big and ripe wine that is regularly 15% alcohol, reflecting a warm and ripe place. The 2017 is no exception, perhaps a riper and more powerful wine than the 2016. It's still very young and marked by the levage, with abundant balsamic aromas and notes from the wood' spice and smoke with an ashy touch. It seems quite marked by the character of the Carmenere. The tannins are quite round and polished, and the flavors are pungent and powerful. It's a full-bodied wine to age in in bottle and enjoy in its 10th birthday with powerful food. 90,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in September 2019. 

Andrea León takes over the technical management of Clos Apalta as of June 2020, so I expect some changes in the wines in future vintages. They have a total of 160 hectares planted in Apalta, but their wines come from a selection of the best plots, 48 hectares, of which 16 are very old, dry-farmed and ungrafted vines planted between 1915 and 1940. The average production is 100,000 bottles. The wines are sold through the Bordeaux négociants.

The wines released in September 2020 are from the 2017 vintage, the driest year in Apalta in the last 15 years. The drought was complicated by some of the highest temperatures ever. These extreme conditions favored the development of wild fires that burned an incredible 600,000 hectares of forest and shrubbery. Many vineyards were tainted by smoke, but not the ones from Apalta. It was a warm vintage of high ripeness and healthy grapes.

Decanter | D 94
Published: Oct 1, 2020
Drink: 2023-2038

Powerful in its concentration and focus, a deep plum colour with the same distinctive sumac and cardamon spice notes as Le Petit Clos, but here with a more serious grip, excellent balance in terms of its liquorice-laced blueberry fruits and a mouthwatering lift through the finish. 85% new oak that fits extremely well in the frame of the wine. 20th anniversary vintage. Now its own specific appellation within the Colchagua Valley. 1% Petit Verdot completes the blend. Certified biodynamic, with a number of ungrafted vines.
Closure: Natural Cork
Alcohol: 15.00%
Body: Full
Oak: Oaked
Grapes: 26% Cabernet Sauvignon 48% Carménère 25% Merlot

Closapalta.com

2017 Tasting Notes

COLOR
Deep garnet in appearance, the wine reflects the intense colour of carmenère grapes and typical aromas of ripe fruits.

NOSE
An abundance of aromas, including redcurrant, raspberry and wild strawberries, reflects the stunning complexity of merlot, cabernet sauvignon and carmenère.    

PALATE
The initial wave of berry fruits, underpinned by soft, silky tannins, is pursued by contrasting touches of black olive, blackcurrant and liquorice. Incredibly long and taut on the finish, revealing exquisite, delicate tannins, and expressing the great elegance of the Apalta terroirs.

Vintage Report
APPELATION
D.O. Apalta.

BLEND
The blend, made up of 48% Carmenère, 26% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Merlot and
1% Petit Verdot.

HARVEST
February 23rd to April 25th.

GROWING CONDITIONS
The 2017 vintage was shaped by extreme conditions which promoted deadly, tinderbox conditions for the propagation of devastating wildfires, with a total of 600,000 hectares of forest. To our great relief, our vines were spared and suffered no smoke damage, which was soon confirmed on tasting the different parcels of grapes.

Winter was exceptionally dry at Clos Apalta, with a 35% hydric deficit compared to the longterm average. Spring was drier and cold. In November, marginally higher temperatures and marginal accumulation of rain resulted in budbreak commencing 10 days early. Summer was unbearably hot, with scorching temperatures hovering between 32°C and 35°C. After the first ten days of March, both minimum and maximum temperatures had dropped markedly. Such temperature variations allowed the grapes to complete phenolic ripening, promoting intense colour and retaining intense fruit character and freshness. 

In the end, conditions for ripening were excellent and consistent with a classic year.