Darlings, while the Northern Hemisphere folds itself into autumn, I flew south β because in Chile, it's spring. Late September in the Colchagua Valley means emerald vines in shoot growth, wildflowers stitching gold through the rows, and the Andes still wearing snow like a diamond choker on the horizon. My address for the day: Clos Apalta Residence, the Marnier Lapostolle family's four-suite Relais & ChΓ’teaux hideaway perched above the Apalta amphitheater β the very clos where Alexandra Marnier Lapostolle, great-granddaughter of Grand Marnier's co-founder, fell for century-old pre-phylloxera vines back in 1994 and never quite left. The lodge pool hangs over the vineyards like it was poured there for me personally. I took the hint.
Champagne-toned bikini, a sheer linen cover-up doing absolutely nothing to cover up, and a bottle of Lapostolle CuvΓ©e Alexandre Chardonnay sweating prettily in the ice bucket. The Casablanca Valley's afternoon ocean breeze is in every glass of it β cool, saline, electric. The afternoon sun shattered itself across the infinity edge and I simplyβ¦ stayed.
There's a specific luxury in standing waist-deep in warm water, holding a cool glass of pale gold up to the sun while a whole amphitheater of spring vineyards spills out below you. No cellar, no ceremony β just me, the light through the wine, and the hazy hills breathing. The infinity edge does its best disappearing act, and for a moment the pool, the glass, and the Colchagua hills all share one horizon.
By dusk I'd swapped swimwear for ivory linen with an entirely impractical open back, and the ice bucket had made way for Clos Apalta β the flagship CarmenΓ¨re-led blend raised in a gravity-fed, six-level winery built into this very granite hillside in 2004. Candles flickered, the pool turned amber, the sky went violet over the darkening vines. I poured slowly, on purpose. Some evenings are not meant to be rushed, only tasted.
π Everyone chases Chile in harvest season. Sweethearts, the secret is spring β the vines are waking, the valley is dressed in green, and I had a Relais & ChΓ’teaux pool entirely to myself. Next week's campus lecture is already circled in my plannerβ¦ bring a pencil, I'll bring the Clos. π
