Le Petit Clos 2016

The nose is elegant and nuanced, with herbs, spices and a core of ripe red and black fruit, quite varietal and with integrated oak. The palate is medium to full-bodied, with round tannins and vibrant acidity, making it long and supple.Luis Gutierrez, Wine Advocate

Tasting Notes

Color

Intense and deep ruby red with purple and cherry edges.

Nose

Complex and expressive. Very intense with black fruit such as maqui berry, cassis and black currant aromas. Red fruit aromas such as cherries and strawberry with fresh herb notes and a touch of vanilla. Spices and cedar notes.

Palate

Big structure and good volume, balance with a remarkable acidity.

Vintage Report

APPELATION

Apalta Valley, Colchagua, Chile.

BLEND

95% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% merlot and 1% Carmenère.

HARVEST

Organic certified vineyard by CERES (Germany). Biodynamic certified vineyard by DEMETER (Germany). Carmenère and Cabernet Sauvignon Pre-phylloxera old vines planted in 1920 not grafted.

GROWING CONDITIONS

The 2016 season began with a dry winter (484 mm v 610 mm on average between May and September). The heaviest rainfall was in August, with 239 mm. Spring was cooler and had more rainfall than normal, in particular from mid-September to mid-November, resulting in “couture” and “millerandage” (poor fruit set). After fruit set, we noted a fall in yields due to loose, light bunches, Summer was particularly hot and dry. February 2016, and the last ten days in particular, was one of the hottest in recent years, with temperature variations reaching as high as 30°C (37°C in the day and 7.7°C at night). Temperatures fell significantly in March with the autumnal equinox, and April brought unusually heavy rainfall (117 mm from the 14th to the 17th). In short, budding was delayed due to a cold spring and the arrival of El Niño. With delays to flowering and fruit set, the 2016 season saw most phenological stages lagging behind, but a hot summer with excellent conditions helped to produce beautiful grapes. 

VINIFICATION

Our Petit Clos was hand harvested in small cases of 12 kilos. The grapes are then hand de-stemmed in our Clos Apalta Winery so we maintain complete control of the quality. We fill our fermentation French oak vats by gravity. We use native yeast to ferment the grape juice into wine, with temperature control max. 28°C. Macerations lasted for a maximum of 6 weeks and during that period we did gentle manual punch downs to extract enough compounds from skins to get the desired structure and concentration. We rack the young new wine straight into 100% new French oak barrels by gravity. Natural malolactic occurred in the barrels, where the wine stayed for 6 months. After that, we did the selection of the lots for the wine and the first racking. The wine was then aged for another 17 months in 20% New French Oak barrels, 32% in second used French oak barrels and 48% in third used French oak barrels. We estate bottled the wine by gravity without any treatment or filtration. 

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Technical sheet

Find out more with our detailed technical sheet.

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