{"id":322,"date":"2010-04-23T21:25:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-24T04:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/?p=322"},"modified":"2010-04-23T21:25:00","modified_gmt":"2010-04-24T04:25:00","slug":"clos-apalta-winery-makers-of-the-best-wine-in-the-world-in-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/2010\/04\/23\/clos-apalta-winery-makers-of-the-best-wine-in-the-world-in-2008\/","title":{"rendered":"Clos Apalta Winery – Makers of the Best Wine in the World in 2008"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Clos Apalta Winery is probably considered the top winery in Chile because its Clos Apalta 2005 vintage won the Wine Spectator’s Best Wine in the World designation in 2008 with a 96 rating (if that means anything to you). \u00a0As such, they charge a hefty – OK, I’ll say it – offensive, $40 USD per person for a tour\/tasting. \u00a0We didn’t know how expensive it was beforehand since most other wineries charge far less, but since we had come all that way, we just plowed ahead. \u00a0So, we’re writing it up separately to amortize the cost, by sharing it with everyone we know. \u00a0\ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

This winery, owned by the wealthy Lapostolle family from France, knows how to spend money and make money. \u00a0In fact, money is no object at this winery – spare no expense! \u00a0 You’ll see why in the rest of the photos below.<\/p>\n

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Upon entering the estate, you drive about 1 km alongside beautiful vineyards of Carmenere, whose leaves turn in to a stunning red color in the Fall, before reaching a junction leading to the winery or the Lapostolle Residence.<\/p>\n

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The Lapostolle Residence is a set of high luxury villas, costing over $1,000\/night. \u00a0The story goes that these villas were originally built for the Lapostolle family to vacation in when they were visiting the winery. \u00a0But, guests began to call about them, asking if they could stay there and how much it would cost. \u00a0The owner threw out a number that she thought would be obscene – so obscene that people wouldn’t pay for it. \u00a0 Well, they did pay, and so the villas became a business. \u00a0Now, knowing this, think back to the tasting fee we paid… hmm…<\/p>\n

The Winery<\/strong><\/p>\n

Here’s the winery building again. \u00a0It’s built to resemble a bird’s nest, with each wooden “rib” representing a month that the wine stays in French oak barrels. \u00a0 Pretty cool… but it gets better.<\/p>\n

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When you pay $40 for a tasting, you have to think there’s a reason for that other than the fact they won an award. \u00a0Well, it’s because the overhead cost of producing this wine is exorbitantly high. \u00a0Take a look at the grape sorting scene here – they employ over 50 women to HAND PICK the grapes off the stems, after which the grapes are put on to a conveyor belt for final filtering and chilling. \u00a0Every other winery we had been to used machines to de-stem the grapes and only 6 people maximum to do the sorting, etc.<\/p>\n

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Here’s the fermentation room where they ONLY use vats made of French oak. \u00a0Remember, these things cost over $30,000 each and are shipped in from France. \u00a0Many other wineries will only have 3 or 4 of these (if at all) with the rest being stainless steel tanks.<\/p>\n

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Here’s the wine cave\/tasting room where wines are stored for their first 12 months. \u00a0The ceiling is structured to resemble the inside of a barrel and has tiny lights embedded in it to provide ambient lighting. \u00a0This picture doesn’t really do it justice – it really is a beautiful space and experience.<\/p>\n

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The Clos Apalta Wine<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now, let’s talk about the wine. \u00a0We tried 3 wines, 2 of which were a “lower tier” label (not called Clos Apalta) produced at another facility. \u00a0Don’t get me wrong, they were still very good and if I remember correctly the price per bottle was less than $30.<\/p>\n

There was one little mishap though (apologies for the ranting), our tour guide – a young woman probably a year out of college – served us corked wine, wine that had already gone bad. \u00a0It had come out of a bottle that was already open. \u00a0Usually, guides taste the wine with you to make ABSOLUTELY SURE that you’re tasting what you’re supposed to, especially at a high end winery like this one. \u00a0Makes us think they really don’t have the customer service training down at this place. \u00a0Earlier, the guide even accused us being late!<\/p>\n

Anyway, back to the wine. \u00a0The main attraction was the Clos Apalta wine, which is a blend of Carmenere, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Petit Verdot. \u00a0 They weren’t pouring the 2005 “Best Wine in the World”\u00a0vintage (I’m sure they locked those up as soon as they won); but, they were pouring the 2008 vintage.<\/p>\n

The verdict is, it is going to be a great wine someday. \u00a0It had a great nose and really concentrated fruit flavors, but it was also super dry and young. \u00a0 In a few years and with some food, it would be great. \u00a0Would we pay over $70 for a bottle? \u00a0Maybe… but we’re not working right now so… \u00a0Maybe not.<\/p>\n

Back to the photos…<\/strong><\/p>\n

So, going back to the photo above, see the people standing around the tasting table? \u00a0Well, it’s not really a table though it functions like one. \u00a0It’s actually the entrance to the owner’s private vinoteca below. \u00a0It looks more like going down in to a modern mausoleum than a wine library. \u00a0Or maybe it’s a spaceship. \u00a0 In either case, I want to go down to there.<\/p>\n

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To get to the second storage room, you go down a gorgeous spiral staircase:<\/p>\n

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Here’s that same staircase from below:<\/p>\n

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And then you arrive at the second storage room. \u00a0The egg shaped object at the end of the room is a new cement fermentation vessel that they may use to experiment on a vintage in the future. \u00a0The egg shape is supposed to support natural circulation and the concrete supposedly helps keep the temperature more stable. \u00a0It’s a method we’d seen in Mendoza in older wineries.<\/p>\n

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Finally, before finishing the tour, you see an exposed rock wall…<\/p>\n

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The story here is that when they built the winery, they designed it so that the building would be part of the hill. \u00a0They thought the hill was made of dirt\/sand so they could easily excavate what they needed, but then they found out that it was solid rock. \u00a0 So, it cost them even more to take some dynamite to it to blow away part of the hill to build the building. \u00a0On the plus side, the rock naturally cools the wine storage rooms and protects against earthquakes.<\/p>\n

The End<\/strong><\/p>\n

So, there you go folks – now you don’t have to visit the Clos Apalta winery. \u00a0 Instead of paying that tasting fee, go to your specialty wine store and order a bottle of it, put it away for a few years, and then have it with a great meal. \u00a0You won’t be disappointed!<\/p>\n

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Clos Apalta Winery is probably considered the top winery in Chile because its Clos Apalta 2005 vintage won the Wine Spectator’s Best Wine in the World designation in 2008 with a 96 rating (if that means anything to you). \u00a0As such, they charge a hefty – OK, I’ll say it – offensive, $40 USD per […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lisaandtony.com\/travelblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}