When Alexandra Marnier Lapostolle, great-granddaughter of the creator of Grand Marnier, launched her dream vineyard in Chile's lush Rapel Valley, eleven years ago, she never imagined that her Clos Apalta wines would be winning top awards today. With a renowned family-run business that also includes the Château de Sancerre vineyards, why travel so far from France?
"I was always intrigued that Chileans journeyed to Bordeaux in the 1860s and replanted the vines back home," says Lapostolle. "It was just in time, before the phylloxera plague wiped out the Bordeaux vines."
When she learned that the Apalta vines were direct descendants of those long-lost complex French vines, the connection was suddenly obvious. Today Casa Lapostolle's sprawling 450-acre estate is equipped with a new six-level underground cellar, carved out of the granite mountainside, and a gentle gravity-operated crushing and fermentation system for the hand-harvested grapes. Once aficionados have finished their wine tasting, they can experience life in one of the vineyard's four lovely, private casitas hidden in the foothills of the Andes.
From $400 a night. casalapostolle.com.
—LANIE GOODMAN
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