The winery is 100% gravity-fed spanning five levels, three of which are buried into the granite of the Apalta hillside to provide a natural cool temperature environment for cellaring and ageing.This rare vertical design allows the wine to flow naturally downward during every stage of the production, eliminating the need to pump, which can adversely affect the subtle flavours of the wine.

Grapes are hand-harvested and brought to the highest level of the winery where they will be 100% hand-destemmed, a labour intensive technique performed by only very few wineries throughout the world.

Fermentation takes place in 21 small French wooden vats which size corresponds to a parcel of our Apalta vineyard. Thus we can enhance the personality of each of our terroir plots.

After two years of ageing in two different barrel cellars, the wine will be bottled and either departs from the base of the winery or join the underground library in the heart of the winery.

We believe Casa Lapostolle’s new Clos Apalta winery to be one of the most exciting developments in winery architecture the world over.The philosophy behind the construction of the winery emphasizes the complicity between Man and Nature.

The architecture of the fermentation room as well as the two-barrel cellars is an ellipse included in a gold rectangle. The harmony of the proportions of this elliptic plan seems to be registered in a perfect circle, like the Piazza del Campidoglio in Rome.

In the southern hemisphere we can’t see the Pole Star but we have the constellation of the Southern Cross. So we liked the symbol of having our winery oriented in the same direction as this extremely important constellation of stars in the southern sky.