2017 Clos Apalta Le Petit Clos Colchagua Chile

When people ask what we love about Chilean reds, we point to this wine. Clos Apalta’s 96-point 2017 Le Petit Clos is vivacious and engrossing, a quality-to-price star with such depth and power that it’s always worth the price of a trip to Chile.

A Bordeaux-inspired blend crafted by French master Michel Rolland, Le Petit Clos enticed us with its opulent depth, composed energy, and Muhammad Ali-esque grace—showing off exactly what has drawn the world’s Cabernet spotlight to Chile, and what earned Le Petit Clos this stunning 96-point score. 

Considering the 96- and 95-point scores James Suckling doled out to the 2017 Napa reds Rolland helped craft at Bryant Family Vineyard ($513) and Dalla Valle ($498), this bottle is just about as much Cabernet excellence as you can get for the money.   

This is the type of wine that sends us scouring the globe for pockets of unique terroir. That keeps us glued to the tasting table, relentlessly seeking greatness. That gets us out of bed in the middle of the night. It’s a ticket to the tip-top of a region for a price that belies the pure luxury. 

Clos Apalta is indisputably among the elite in Chile, alongside estates like Almaviva, Viñedo Chadwick, and Sena. Le Petit Clos comes from the younger vines on the exact same first-rate land as the estate’s world-renowned $120+ grand vin, which means incredible value on some of the nation’s top terroir.

Alexandra Marnier Lapostolle, from the famed family behind Grand Marnier, spent 25 years searching for the ideal vineyard location, and she landed on Clos Apalta’s cool hillsides, which are graced by a rich mosaic of clay, granite, and quartz soils that Rolland called “more than we could ever have hoped for.” It’s a collage of terroir that produces exceptionally complex wines, and has earned Clos Apalta multiple perfect scores and a spot in Wine Spectator’s Top 3 on three different occasions.

It might rival Napa and Bordeaux in quality, but Le Petit Clos is distinctly Chilean in the glass. Primarily Cabernet Sauvignon, with smaller portions Carménère, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, and Petit Verdot, it layers rich black fruit with intriguing mint and spice. “This is so delicious,” James Suckling wrote, before praising the wine as “very polished with gorgeous texture and finesse.” Wine Advocate chimed in, calling it “powerful and concentrated but with very good balance.” 

In the winery, Rolland and company treat these hand-picked grapes like precious cargo. They arrive in small 12-kilogram cases to be sorted, hand-destemmed, and fed into large wooden fermenters, where native yeasts work their magic. 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 15% new French oak for an additional 16 months. 

• Fruit Intensity
• Oak Intensity
• Body
• Acidity
• Tannin

• ABV 14.50%
• 15 mins
• Now – 2030
• 68% Cabernet Sauvignon16% Carménère9% Cabernet Franc5% Merlot2% Petit Verdot
• Serving temperature – 62°
• Cork