Robert Parker Wine Advocate

There is a lot of Carmenere character on the nose of the 2018 Clos Apalta, which was produced with 64% Carmenere, 18% Cabernet Sauvignon and 18% Merlot, a blend that is similar to the one used in 2016. The wine is not shy at all and hits the scale at 15% alcohol. It's showy, heady, hedonistic, aromatic, full-bodied and lush with abundant velvety tannins and a long and powerful finish where the notes of black peppercorns and tea and tobacco leaves dominate. This might not be a wine for everybody, but fans of the style will love it. 92,748 bottles produced. It was bottled in October 2020.

James Suckling

This is really focused and refined with fantastic dried flowers and dark berries. Dried-lavender and mint undertones. Medium-to full-bodied with refined and polished tannins that are all together and so focused. Really integrated and melted together on the palate. Compact and very linear. Please give this two or three years to come completely together, but it’s already breathtaking. Better to drink after 2022.

Tim Atkin

Wine Spectator

Wine & Spirits Magazine

Patricio Tapia - Descorchados

Clos Apalta is the house’s top wine. The first vintage was the 1997, and it has been a paradigm of this style of ample, succulent, and ripe wines from South America ever since. This year’s is a blend of 64% carménère, 19% cabernet sauvignon, and 17% merlot. While the cabernet and carménère are from vineyards planted between 1910 and 1945, the merlot was planted on hillsides considerably later in 2005, and it’s the only variety there, because everything else is planted on the zone’s flat granitic soils. A colder year has given this Clos a fresh air of red fruits. It’s still an ample, succulent wine, but it’s also accompanied by firm tannins and piercing acidity. The wine spent two years in new barrels, and of course, that is evident. Give it time. This wine should begin to show greater complexity after another three or four years in the bottle.