2012 Clos Apalta Vinothèque

We are pleased to offer : Clos Apalta Vinothèque 2012 - a limited library release, 10 years after harvest. These are the very last bottles available , that have been labelled with the new Clos Apalta label, and a special Vinotheque mention below. They come in OWC3. Message from Charles de Bournet "In September 2015, our partnership with CVBG was officially launched, with the initial release of our 2012 vintage. Today, 10 years from that first vintage distributed by CVBG, we bring our most faithful followers back to the beginning of our story by relaunching the 2012 vintage as part of the “Vinothèque” series. This extremely limited release will come back every year under the concept of 10 years of cellar ageing between the harvest date and the Vinothèque release date, a fantastic way to underscore the extraordinary ageing potential of our wines. Clos Apalta 2012 was bottled from 25th to 28th of 2014 and then kept back in the Bournet-Lapostolle family cellar to age in optimal conditions, under the close watch of its makers. Today, 10 years on, the wine is marked by tannins that evoke the finest velvet, enhanced complexity and an elegance refined by the passing of time. It has now fully blossomed. From its first vintage in 1997, Clos Apalta has achieved worldwide acclaim. To date it remains the only South American wine to have been ranked #1 wine of the world by Wine Spectator, which was achieved with our 2005 vintage in the 2008 edition of their illustrious Top 100. The only other wine from the South Hemisphere to share this honour is Penfolds Grange. Clos Apalta has consistently received critical praise and is widely considered as one of the world’s finest wines. In the last 5 vintages, Clos Apalta is the only wine in Latin America that has received 4 times 100 pts, 3 of these by the world renowned American wine critic James Suckling. Clos Apalta has come a long way, and 10 years have passed since we harvested the 2012 vintage, so it is time for us to look back and celebrate what we have accomplished. After all, wine is about experiences, and we hope you will enjoy this one. Charles de Bournet” About the vintage : This 2012 vintage started with a hot and dry spring, followed by a sunny summer with cold nights that gave us big thermal amplitude, a key factor for quality. No rain was recorded during this harvest season, and high temperatures during the summer and fall resulted in earlier than normal ripening and harvest. Concerning the temperatures in spring, September was exceptionally hot. It was a small summer in the middle of the spring. October and November were just a little bit warmer and permitted a nice flowering of our grapevines. Summer started warmer than usual in December. However cool nights refreshed the ambient, raised air humidity, producing more colour in the berries and preserving their natural acidity. The ripeness came earlier than usual. We harvested the red varieties 3 weeks earlier to achieve the right level of ripeness.