I’ve been drinking a lot of Chilean wines lately. This is not just because Chile makes cheapies with excellent value – other places can do this too. But Chile has found the secret of making great wine in prodigious quantities (perhaps inexpensive labour has something to do with it). This is useful for a wine lover because it means that you can dependably find the same brands year round.
I’ve already mentioned Cono Sur and Vina Perez Cruz as Chilean names to remember if you are prone to cluelessly wandering around the LCBO while thousands of unfamiliar wines stare down at you from the shelves. To this list, you can also add Casa Lapostolle, an award winning winery with half-a-dozen different wines at Vintages on an almost continuous basis. My highlights are:
- Casa Lapostolle Merlot 2006 (
$16.95[Ed. note: No longer available], Vintages #405712) has a silky mouthfeel and soft, almost bruised fruit flavours. Some Merlots are heavy or sloppy, but this has a beautiful poise and backbone. - Casa Lapostolle Cabernet Sauvignon 2006 (
$15.95[Ed. note: No longer available], Vintages #39880) is a good choice if you’re looking for a wine for short term cellaring. I’ve got several of the ‘04’s in my basement, where they are ripening like plums in the sun. Great with steak.
What I admire about Casa Lapostolle is that they have a very French (or “old world”) style. Whereas most Chilean wines are composed of broad and bright flavours of fruit and oak, Casa Lapostolle takes a much subtler approach, crafting wines that emphasize texture, balance and integration.
This is no accident. The owner, Alexandra Marnier Lapostolle comes from a long line of Loire winemakers. More importantly, Casa Lapostolle has vines that are so French, not even the French have them anymore. During the late 1800s, a plague of biblical pedigree struck France; tiny lice wiped out almost every grapevine in France. The industry was saved by planting North American roots into France’s soil and then grafting the traditional vines to the new roots. A part of France’s heritage was irreparably lost – except that some roots survived across the ocean.
Some of Casa Lapostolle’s vineyards still preserve the original French variety of roots. These vines are ancient, and give a kind of fruit that should be designated a world heritage sight. The best of these grapes go into the premium Casa Lapostolle Clos Apalto 2005 ($99.95 [Ed. note: 2005 no longer available], Vintages #723676). This may appear expensive, but in reality, it is a bargain. The Wine Spectator named the Clos Apalto in the top 3 of the 100 best wines of the year for two years running. Tasting it is like taking a course in wine appreciation, because it will teach you exactly what wine is supposed to taste like. That is not to say it is flashy – rather, if wine was a person, then this wine would be elegance personified. It would be my number one recommendation as a gift for someone you love very, very much. Someone who shares.
Matthew Sullivan is a lawyer with the Department of Justice in Toronto. He writes a weekly blog entry here on lawandstyle.ca. The Short Cellar column appears in the print edition of Precedent. Matthew can be reached at matthew@lawandstyle.beta-site.ca