 Chateau de Poppe is a region in the southern road of France. It's known for big fruity, meaty red wines. But do you know that they also produce whites? Learn more in this video. Oh, welcome back to Exotic Wine Travel. I am your host, Matthew Horkey. Coming to you live, well not live really, but coming to you from the Villa Familia in Istria, Croatia. This is kind of the end of our lockdown period during this whole coronavirus thing. I hope the world starts to open up and we can kind of travel outside of Croatia soon, but it's been a great month here. As you see the villa, that's why you saw that little introductory video. But let's talk about the white wines of Chateau de Poppe. Most people, most collectors know about the reds of Chateau de Poppe and for good reason. That's about 94% of the production of all wine Chateau de Poppe is red with about 6% being white. Chateau de Poppe is a crew villa in the southern road. It's named literally translates to New Castle of the Pope when the Pope built his castle and moved from Rome to the nearby city of Avignon hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years ago. So the cool thing, the weird thing about Chateau de Poppe is you can blend a ton of grapes. It used to be 13, but in 2009, 2010 they changed to 18 permitted grape varieties that you can put in the blend. So you can even mix white grapes into red grapes to create red Chateau de Poppe. That's why they have a number of light skin grapes. In the recent years, the quality has grown of white wines. They're very rare, very hard to see. They're not cheap. They're a little more expensive. For the longest time, when we were starting to get more and more into wine, I had not tasted a white Chateau de Poppe because they were so hard to find. Last couple years, I've been going there tasting more. We just were working on a big Chateau de Poppe report. So we had a bunch set to us, got a chance to taste through them. So what kind of wine grapes are you going to see in white Chateau de Poppe or Chateau de Poppe Blanc? There are four main grape varieties you're going to see. The main grapes you're going to see are Roussin, Grenache Blanc, Burbalanc, and Claret. They're also some minor clones of those grapes that are actually permitted. And that's Claret Rose, which is a pink-skinned version of Claret. You're going to have Grenache Gris, gray-skinned Grenache. Two types of Pickpool, a grape that they actually use in Languedoc. Pickpool Gris and Pickpool Blanc as well as Picardens. So very cool. Pickpool brings up some more acid in these grapes. So that's really cool. The cool thing about Chateau de Poppe, which is unusual for both reds and whites, you can blend all these grapes together. Or within the Appalachian, you can create a wine that's 100% of any of those grape varieties, which is really cool. So it gives producers a lot of chances to blend, to change styles. Even for reds, it's hard to nail down the real style of Chateau de Poppe because there's so many flavors. You can have riper fruit, you can have more leaner stock, you can have a little bit more oak, less oak. The same of the white wines too, because you can use some of the different grapes. So some of these white wines can be absolutely world, world class. And one of the most memorable white wines I've ever had is Chateau Bo Castel, the Roussaint Vieveen, which is an extraordinary 100% barrel fermented Roussaint. In the recent pack we sent one that really impressed me. I tasted this out of barrel and out of cement earlier. This is the Domain Chante Cigali Extrait 2018 Chateau de Poppe Blanc, Roussaint Grenache Blanc. And it's half in big oak and half in a cement egg. And then they blend it really, really cool. One thing that was also very good during this is the Domain de Chanteau. This is a Chateau de Poppe Blanc 2018, really, really, really good. So what is the style? There's going to be a lot of different flavors. So it's really hard to knock down style. And also producers can make it stainless steel to make crispy or fresher white wines. Or they can do some barrel fermentation, some fermentation in stainless steel or concrete and then blend everything together. So the style is going to run the gamut. One thing that you are going to see, these wines are going to be full bodied, big and a little bit lower in acidity. So for those of you that like Riesling, Sauvignon Blancs, these wines might not appeal your palate. Those like big barrel fermented oaky chardonnays, you might be able to find your place here. These white wines are fascinating. You know, in the past they were oxidated. They were not very good. And in the recent years, now they're excellent. One thing about Chateau de Poppe Blanc, I don't think the quality is as uniform as red Chateau de Poppe. Red Chateau de Poppe, almost any producer I feel like you can trust. Any of their wines really, really good. White Chateau de Poppe is kind of all over the place. It can be outstanding. It can be good, but not blowing my face off. I'm going to taste one here and see if it gives the typical type of flavors. This is the La Bastille Saint Dominique Chateau de Poppe Chapelle 2019. This is 100% claret rosé. So I think it might be claret rose in France because there's no hyphen on top there. Partially barrel fermented, partially in steel and concrete. So let's give this a little bit of a smell here. It's 2019, so it's fresh. But I am getting a kind of rouson notes when I smell this. When I say that, you're going to think kind of white peach notes, a lot of flint, almost like those baked sunstones that you see outside in the sun. That's where you're picking up lime. A little bit of yogurt. Really, really not too bad. Let's give this a swirl. Wow. Typical Chateau de Poppe Blanc in which I mean by that, it is rich, unctuous, powerful. I mean, think about it. If you're drinking a lot of like supermarket white wines, think of that as skim milk. This Chateau de Poppe Blanc, more premium wine. It's almost like heavy cream feeling in your mouth. It's not super high. It's a little bit oaky, but not over the top. You can taste the hints of oak. This is 2019 though. So it's still super young, lots of intensity, lots of flavor. I'm going to follow along with this, taste this even more. I think this is a type of wine. It's a 91, maybe a 92 point type wine off the taste over and before I have my final score. So one thing also about these Chateau de Poppe Blancs. Most producers, these wines are meant to be drunk on the younger side. It's a little bit hotter in the Southern Rhone. Grapes tend to have less acidity. There are some great examples. Like I said, the Bocastal, both the Chateau de Poppe Blanc and the Russo Vavines can age for a long, long time. So let me know in the comments below. Have you had any White Chateau de Poppe Blanc before? Do you have any favorite producers? Put it in the comments below. Stay tuned for our report on our website about White Chateau de Poppe. And guys, if you like this video, please subscribe to our YouTube channel, Exotic Wine Travel. Click the bell so you know when new videos come out. And I will see you in the next episode.