Clos Apalta — The Bournet Lapostolle Story

An old Chilean vineyard caught Alexandra Marnier Lapostolle’s imagination. A family project, a winemaking team and a cellar built into the hillside turned that encounter into a wine story.

Circular arrangement of large wooden fermentation vats inside Clos Apalta’s winery — Wooden vats in Clos Apalta’s cellar, in an actual photograph presented on the estate’s official site. Image source: Clos Apalta. Photographer not identified in the source; no Creative Commons licence is claimed.

A family looks beyond its French beginning.

In 1994, Alexandra Marnier Lapostolle and her husband Cyril de Bournet found their Chilean starting point in Apalta. The family’s earlier history includes the creation of Grand Marnier; the Chilean chapter follows a vineyard and its wine, rather than a liqueur recipe.

Clos Apalta was created in 1997. Their son Charles-Henri de Bournet has led the company since 2013. The continuity is part of the appeal: a founder’s ambition becomes an ongoing conversation among generations and the people responsible for growing and making the wine.

Put the winemaking team into the picture.

The estate identifies Andrea León as technical director, interpreting its vineyard plots since 2005, and Michel Rolland as consulting oenologist, involved with Clos Apalta since 1997. Their work belongs beside the family history. A wine is not made by a founder’s name alone.

Separate plots allow the team to preserve different components before blending. That gives us an accessible way into the craft: identify what was grown, how it was fermented and which lots were eventually chosen. A finished blend can carry a vineyard’s identity without being a single-varietal wine.

Apalta sits within Colchagua.

Locate Colchagua Valley → near Santa Cruz, then look closer at Apalta. The estate describes slopes, sheltered exposures, granitic soils and old Cabernet Sauvignon and Carménère plots. Its oldest plots are dated to the early twentieth century.

The hill setting matters to this particular estate. It should not become a claim that every Colchagua vineyard shares the same soils, aspect or vines. Nearby VIK → offers a different comparison in Millahue, Cachapoal; the two producers should not be placed in the same valley simply because both make Chilean blends.

Carménère leads this dated example.

Clos Apalta 2022 is listed as 68% Carménère, 22% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Merlot, with Apalta as its origin. Its technical sheet records 21 months in French oak barrels: 73% new and 27% second-use. The vintage is essential to both statements.

Follow this clue	What it tells us
Grapes	68% Carménère + 22% Cabernet Sauvignon + 10% Merlot. These figures total the complete 2022 grape blend.
Fermentation vessels	The 2022 technical sheet distinguishes fermentation in large French oak vats from a smaller portion fermented in Bordeaux barrels.
Maturation vessels	Twenty-one months in French oak barrels, with new and second-use wood. This is a different stage from fermentation and a different set of percentages.

Compare with the Cabernet-led Almaviva examples. Bordeaux connections can lead to very different Chilean wines: the lead grape, growing place, vintage and cellar decisions all deserve attention.

Let gravity join the cellar tour.

Architect Roberto Benavente Riquelme designed the hillside winery. The estate describes a sequence of descending levels that carries grapes and wine through vinification, barrel ageing and bottling. Separate vats support parcel-by-parcel work before the final blend.

Gravity is the practical idea to follow: placing one operation below another can reduce the need to pump wine between those stages. It does not mean gravity replaces fermentation, careful handling or the winemaker’s judgement. The architecture is a working tool as well as a striking place to visit.

A good cellar photograph makes another distinction visible. The large wooden vats shown here are not the same size or function as the smaller barrels used for maturation. Vessel material, capacity and purpose should be read together.

A small Cork Dork discovery.

Let the maker’s account join your tasting.

Follow the 2022 technical sheet from grapes to fermentation vessels and then ageing vessels. Sketch a simple downward cellar journey. Compare the Carménère-led blend with Almaviva’s Cabernet-led example: what do you now know before a glass is poured?

Where shall we wander next?

Colchagua Valley →Almaviva →VIK →Carménère →Cabernet Sauvignon →Merlot →Blending Wine →Wine Fermentation →Barrels & Sizes →

Behind this introduction.

Editorial sources checked 25 October 2026. Historical events and individual wines are dated where relevant. Producer descriptions explain their own practice; they are not universal rules or independent rankings.

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