Moving on from the last post of our morning Chilean wine tasting, Steve (DOS) and I had a phenomenal wine pairing lunch at Clos Apalta Winery. As part of our three day tour with Jose, owner of Uncorked Wine Tours, we had requested nice lunch wine pairing each day with Jose and he didn’t disappoint us! This is our third tour to Chile with Jose, so he really knows our preferences, and Jose definitely exceeded them with this lunch!
Clos Apalta is the iconic wine of the Lapostolle family of wines, however they market this as a separate and very upscale brand. We visited the winery at Clos Apalta last year for a tour and tasting, but on this visit we would have a scrumptious private lunch. While we didn’t stay there last time or this time, they have four luxury villas on the property, which like their food and wines, must be totally over the top as seen in this link to the ‘residences’ there.
When we arrived, we immediately recognized the property, with its dramatic hillside views from the mountainside terrace, overlooking the vineyards down below.
We then walked up to the main ‘residence’ building, going down a flight of stairs straight out of a Hollywood mansion, thru a living room, and ultimately the adjacent dining room.
While the dining room could seat a few other diners, such as the pampered guests staying at the villas, today we had the whole intimate dining room to ourselves – talk about a lifestyles of the rich and famous feel!
While not a great photo due to the glare, here is a copy of our exclusive specially prepared lunch menu.
And here are some photos of our fabulous lunch. From the appetizer starter to dessert finale, it was an art of dining in a surreal but casually elegant setting.
The iconic Clos Apalta and Lapostolle wines were a perfect compliment to the meal, and were generously served.
We finished off our lengthy multi-course meal with a decedent dessert and fancy coffee.
After the wonderful lunch, we headed back to meet Jose, while first stopping at the gift shop, and passing the winery’s really fancy entrance staircase, something that seems like a scene out of the movie vertigo! We had walked down that staircase a couple years ago when we toured the winery, and it is quite fancy, if not dizzying in the look down.
DOS bought a couple of bottle of wine to bring home, but unfortunately no caps here for souvenirs. The gift shop overlooks the huge barrel and fermentation facilities which we toured on our last visit there, with the huge French Oak barrels.
Finally after both a morning of wine touring (previous post) and a fancy elegant lunch, we headed back to meet our guide Jose. We took a couple more photos on the way out to remember our wonderful time at Clos Apalta.
Finally back at Jose’s van, we thanked him for picking such a wonderful place for lunch.
As we drove off to yet another winery stop, we left with wonderful memories of Clos Apalta and our wonderful afternoon there. Thanks to all the wonderful staff at Clos Apalta – you’re truly a class act! Muchas gracias!
