September 16, 2022

CLOS APALTA Clos Apalta Vineyard 2017

(Colchagua Valley, Chile) $149

Alexandra Marnier Lapostolle (of France’s Grand Marnier family) and her husband, Cyril de Bournet, founded Lapostolle winery in 1994 and, with the help of famous French enologist Michel Rolland, set about making sophisticated, complex wines at a time when most Chilean wine was straightforward and simply serviceable. They have been hugely successful. What Harlan is to the US, Clos Apalta is to Chile—in short, renowned globally. (Although it costs a fraction of Harlan or top-growth Bordeaux.) The vineyards lie in a horseshoe-shaped valley of decomposing granite slopes, considered one of the best terroirs in the country. The wine (Carmenere with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Petit Verdot) is pure hedonism in a bottle, with delicious flavors of wild berries, vanilla bean, sweet pipe tobacco, black olive, espresso, and roasted green chiles. Clos Apalta has soft, silky tannins. But what really gets to you is the finish…the long, slow waves that don’t stop.

97 points KM

Available at Vivino.com

What is the Ark of Taste?

A. An international catalog of endangered foods

B. A history of the ways in which smell and taste have changed through human evolution

C. A term winemakers use for the way a wine can presents itself spatially on the palate

D. A compendium of foods mentioned in the Bible

The Ark of Taste is an international catalog of endangered heritage foods maintained by the global Slow Food movement. The goal is to preserve unique foods that reflect their culture and place, and to keep them from extinction by encouraging consumers to grow and eat those foods. Besides being rare, foods on the list must be “culturally or historically linked to a specific region, locality, ethnicity or traditional production practice.” The Ark of Taste was founded in 1996. Today, more than 5,000 products from more than 150 countries are on the list. Those foods include: Great Plains Bison from Canada; Bergamot Oranges from Calabria, Italy; Violet Asparagus from Liguria, Italy; Harrison Cider Apples from New Jersey; Meyer Lemons from California; White Strawberries from Chile; and Bull Boar Sausage from Australia. Slow Food publishes the catalog along with resources for those who want to grow or buy the foods on the list.

The Grapes of (Welch’s) Wrath

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CLOS APALTA Clos Apalta Vineyard 2017

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