 Hello, hello, welcome back to Exotic Wine Travel. I am your host, Matthew Horky. Hi, I'm Sheridan. And we have a special guest today, Clive Purcells, we'll talk about him in a second. So we have to be a little bit quiet because it's late at night, so I'm about midnight in the hotel we're in France. But we're gonna be doing an interesting tasting. Sheridan and I just got back from Chattanoff to Pop and Clive is actually from Washington in the state of Washington. So we're gonna do a Washington GSM versus a Chattanoff to Poplaw Tasting Challenge. Before we get started, you want to talk a little bit about who you are, what you're right for, yada, yada, yada. Yeah, I got my start as a Northwest wine blogger. I'm currently the culture and traveler for a cycling lifestyle magazine called Peloton where I write about wine and food and travel. And I saw these guys doing a tasting of some Washington Sarras and I wrote them a few comments about the Tannet wine and the next thing you know, they weren't gonna be in Chattanoff to Pop and so that's kind of how this came together. And it's really cool, Clive's a great guy, knows his wine really well, really passionate about Washington wine. Also write for a Washington wine blog, right? Yeah. Occasionally, I'll put that link in the description box here. So we're doing different vintages, of course, different styles, but I thought it'd just be fun to taste. What do you want to start with? The Chattanoff to Pop or the Tannet? Chattanoff to Pop. Okay. Just because the alcohol is lower. We have the Domain de la Chabrin there, Chattanoff to Pop. 2015, Cherine is the one who picked this wine for the challenge. Why did you pick this one? So all responsibility on me. So first of all, we tasted the 2009 of this winery and it aged really well. It's also, as a whole, the entire portfolio is much more elegant, more finesse, and I think it's not override. It has this aromatic compound that is still very present, yeah. 2015, I really like this wine. 15 was a great vintage in Chattanoff to Pop, as well as 16. Let's give this a little bit of a go here. For me, immediately, the granache jumps out. Yes, it does, aromatically for sure. I get a lot of strawberry, pepper, meaty notes. As other people on your trip are saying hello to us here. Rose, rose, rose. Rose petals. Not a lot of bread. Really clean Chattanoff to Pop. You agree? I wouldn't have picked anything with a lot of bread. Let's give this a little go. What do you guys get on the palate here? A lot of pepper. This to me is what I like in granache. A lot of strawberry, like sweet strawberry jam. Pepper. This reminds me of why I picked this wine in the first place because of the structure. Very linear, a bit of silkiness, and then the tenons hit you. The alcohol doesn't creep up on you, right? It's very structured, and you could tell this wine would last a long, long time. I think we already scored this one. We tasted it. I would think I was in a 92-point range type deal. This is not the top bottling. No, this is the standard bottling. What kind of quality level are you? I would pay, you know, $40, $50, probably for this bottle. I think that's what retail is for in the US, actually. Finish that up. So it's a win? It's a good wine. I think we have a lot of potential for four or five years from now. Let's move on, shall we? We have Tenet, the GSM 2014. It's a different vintage Columbia Valley. Philip Canby, actually, a famous Chattanoff de Pop consultant, is a winemaker in this. We actually just judged with him at a Chattanoff de Pop competition, which is pretty ironic. This is a project of Chattanoff Saint-Michel, right? Chattanoff Saint-Michel, which is Washington, really founded the Washington wine industry, and there wouldn't be a Washington wine industry without that winery. And today, you can talk to little operators, and they'll tell you about the stories they have where they have a problem with their wine. They get on the phone, and someone at Chattanoff Saint-Michel will talk to them for two, three hours just helping them. Wow. Sort of troubleshoot. No one in Washington will say a bad word about that operation, because they're just a world-class organization. Biggest recently produced in the world, right? It's true. Yeah, they do a lot of work with Ernst Lucen. This vintage was one of... Washington's had a lot of hot vintages the last five years, but this was one of the hottest, warmest, and they're a long time. So it's going to be a big wine, I'm assuming. 15-5, 2014. Of course, like I said, this is not the same vintages, but similar blends. It's just kind of fun to do. 15-5 alcohol, 95 points. Wine advocate. It's huge, yeah. So... You know, it doesn't smell as big as I would expect. I mean, it smells like some of his wines from Chattanoff to Pop, actually. Philips. Yeah, and I think for me, the Cera jumps right out for us before the ganache. This is mostly, do you know who? It's mostly ganache, and then I think half again, the other two or something. 43% Grenache, 35-sur-Hus, 22-moved. The moved actually shows the meatiness on the nose as well. This is, you know what? This is quite refined, not just a fruit jam bomb, like I was expecting, right? You get some violets, a little bit of black olive, dark fruit, pepper. Yeah, I get a really dark, like a core of dark fruit on the aromatics. Maybe a little dried fig. Let's give it go on the palate. What are you guys picking out? It's nice. Nice wine. It's nice wine. Super polished tenons. Big boy wine. This is big. Bring out the Flintstone steak. Bring out the tomahawk. I like this. This is definitely going to appeal to somebody that wants a bigger, bigger, bigger wine. Me personally, I kind of like this style a bit more, but I'm definitely not kicking this off the dinner table. 95 is going to be high for me. I'm still in the 92, 93 range. I think it's pretty impressive stuff. What about you? What do you think? I think this was got one point above the other one for me, about one or two points, because I love the Muvet tenons. I think it's just hard to dismiss that Muvet kind of structure and tenons that really pushes up a little bit more. It's funny because I think I was expecting this wine to be maybe jammy or maybe it really is, but it's pretty savory. It's pretty classy. It's pretty impressive, actually. We just did the tenet, the basic pundit sorai. I think this is impressive. What are you two preferring, the other two? I'm shockingly preferring the Washington wine. I tend to have a European sort of palate, but I think this one feels a little more structured, where this wine sort of fleshes out in your mouth a little bit more, so I like it. I think you're just being a homeowner. I would want to drink this right now, but if I have food or if I have a fresher palate like tomorrow, I would definitely pick this. I mean, we're going to go wrong with either wines. I think this retails 80 bucks, I think, right in the US. It's not cheap. It's not that much yet. I think it's a little bit lower than that, but maybe in the $60 range, I don't know the exact price of it. So, I know, both job. I mean, I'm glad these wines were not corked. I'm glad that they showed pretty well. Anything else you want to add on the GSM? You want to say anything about Washington? I just think Washington, I would say you could drink their sorais against anybody in the world, and I truly believe that you'll be blown away by the sorai, the varietal sorai, the sorai blends. It's a world-class wine region. Do you think that's the reason why the sorai jumps out first in this blend? Yeah, I mean, Washington has really made its name on sorai with kaius and some of these other sort of cult producers, and I do think that it's hard to sell sorai, and that's part of the challenge, is that sorai's a very terroir sort of driven wine that, and a lot of American consumers, especially they really want what they want or what they expect when they open a bottle and sorai can be confusing in the same way that Pinot Noir. Yeah, yeah. But I do think this is an example of sort of like Washington is on a world stage, just people haven't really fully caught up. Well, I think in the U.S., but maybe not outside the U.S. I mean, I want to get into Washington and once more, I've enjoyed everything that I've had. Yeah, guys, check it out. This is gonna be for the bigger bolder. This is maybe somebody more classical European palette. You're not gonna go wrong with either. I'll put the links in the description box. I'll put Clive's, some of Clive's work in the description box, and if you like this video. Please subscribe to our YouTube channel. Exotic One Travel, I will see you in the next episode. Cheers! Good episode, yeah.