 Welcome back to exotic wine travel. I am your host Matthew Orkey. Hi, I'm Shreveen Tan So we just got back from Shatunov-du-pah A region that we wanted to go for a long time Before we went, what were your initial impressions of the wines in the region? I think one of the first few wines that we share and you really like was a Shatunov-du-pah I think your excitement was much higher than mine I was interested in it I really wanted to explore that area because it's one of the Classic wine regions of the world, but I have to be honest before the trip I wasn't that into Shatunov-du-pah white and red both wines I kind of thought that well the wines are really nicely crafted and all that but I usually find that they like finesse, elegance I'm generalizing right? I mean every single region would have that kind of wines that you would like, but yeah, that was my initial impression Thank you Well, I was really excited to go actually that one of our first wines was a clothe of papa 2002 We had over in Singapore that really really really got me interested in the region We judged with we judged with the president of the vineyard Shatunov-du-pah vineyards Association the show plonk were in Romania he invited us to come over For those of you that are wine geeks, you know that in the Rhone Valley, especially in the southern Rhone Vines are bush fine. They're low to the ground because there's a wind called the mistra that comes in through the Alps It's piercing it's blowing really really hard And then another characteristic of the vineyards of Shatunov-du-pah are the galleys the round stones And what they do is they hold in the sunlight the heat and they give off more heat at night Along the grapes to reach full maturity and we experienced all of that Maybe not the mistra on full force, but we did experience it, right? So I think what's really interesting is we hear and read about all we heard and read about you know the condition the the soy type and Shatunov-du-pah, but You really get a different sense when you're there because you start to think you start to imagine The people how do they work in those vineyards? You know, it's so hard for us to even walk across those vineyards and other people need to work with them So that's really quite emotional when you understand that this bottle that you have on your hand It takes a lot of work to get them into a bottle One thing that I thought was interesting you see pictures of the vineyards with all the galleys and stones And we did see that but there are other vineyards and soil types it was not just all galley I think that was sandy soil as well. Yeah, you really like the granache with sandy soil, right? Correct, and we didn't experience the mistra in full force, but it was early spring and it was starting to blow through and You noticed the temperature in the air, right? I mean when it blows through even though it says it's like 60 degrees Celsius on our foil, but you feel like it could be 90 degrees Celsius The wind gets chilly and that's what keeps the grapes dry keeps them free of disease What's also interesting is when you are there looking at a vineyard, you realize that Shatunov-du-pah really has great potential for organic Organic viticulture because of the mistra the dry weather the condition So in Shatunov-du-pah most of the production is red wine Although there are there is a small production of whites and within that style in reds and generally Shatunov-du-pah you can have big humongous massive red wines or you can have red wines that are kind of more traditional More on the elegant side the wines are still 15 and a half 16 degrees of alcohol and then you have the whites Let's talk about the reds first. Maybe our preferences and styles I'm definitely towards the elegant side where it's a little bit more dull bad with more red fruit nicer acidity and you know less futile you can feel the tenons coming through that's the kind of style that I like Yeah, me too. I like I definitely liked when you couldn't feel the alcohol as much they were more elegant You also have wines that are made big and blousy and full oak and just humongous I like the wines that are dialed back a little bit more I don't have an issue with oak if that one of the wines that I really love is hundred percent new oak I think when you are using when you're using your oak and having good integration, that's great Especially when your fruit has amazing phenolic rhinos the wine tastes good. Let's talk about the whites. Oh Yeah The whites I think they are fantastic because what you can blend the grapes, right? So you achieve such a great balance full body great acidity long finish I think that what exemplifies Shut down to pop white my personal preference I always look forward to tasting more oaky white wine over there with like, you know barrel age or Fermented in old barrels because because I mean you've got such good fruit again, right? I really appreciate shuttle to pop white when it's more H worthy with nothing holding back Yeah, you could they could see definitely the two cells so the fresh and the kind of fresh fruity main stainless steel Then the more barrel fermented barrel age those usually had grapes mostly predominantly russon It's something that you really appreciate because of the honey Flavor Shut up to pop was blessed with two recent outstanding vintages 2015 2016 We tasted hundreds of shut off to pops from both vintages so we could see a static there mostly a stylistic difference What were your some impressions of 2015 versus? 2016 what 2015 is it's obviously more generous warmer bigger structure for the tenants based on the rather huge samples that we had 2016 is much more accessible more finesse, but against you a really good year with nice tenants as well I also learned from the the producers that the you was was good the quality was good So 2016 was generally like an overall really great year at first I love 2016 because it's much more accessible having a glass of the 2016 It's easy to drink But you know I think from a consumer perspective and I asked myself if I would buy like a case back I probably would pick 2015 because you know I enjoy how it's giving me a lot more I generally like tenants. Okay, so I really like a 2000 2015 generous tenants And I love to imagine how such a Structured wine would evolve over one night one bottle or even a year or like five ten years Hey, I definitely 2015 definitely seems like it might be a little more subtle seller worthy might live a little longer Me personally I prefer to treat the 2016's I think they have a little bit more a city Maybe kind of more in balance 15 has more fruit But regardless you're not gonna go wrong with either vintage 15 and 16 string of excellent vintages, right? You see that's why we always have to get two bottles for us, you know The reason we went was the actual annual event the late print tips this shut off to pop And it was an awesome event in the village of shut off to pop over 90 producers Oh, I think over 250 wines maybe even 300 wines it was crowded they were selling their wine tasting wine They had the basic cuvées. They had the special cuvées. What was your impression of that event? Oh my I discovered so many producers I mean I my Understanding the knowledge of the region was rather limited and I think that a lot of producers that don't Export their wine. So we tasted a lot of wines that we've never seen before or heard about and some Unicorns more production wines as well. Yeah, I think it's a great for anybody that loves shut off to pop Sometimes it's not so easy to get so many those wines get expensive. It's not so easy to taste all of them in one setting I thought the late print attempts was a fantastic opportunity to get the chance to go there a lot tourists All the producers are selling the wines actually a very low a lot much lower cost than in the cellar So people are walking out with cases the only complaint is it was a little bit too crowded I couldn't taste every producer like we usually like to in a show like that But it's really okay to work around it just for all of this sort of events just arrive early You know right at the beginning when the event opens and that's where it's not as crowded and then taste for like three hours If you're a consumer you want to enjoy or they go ahead But I definitely agree with you if you're in the vicinity in the country when print them is happening There is no reason why you shouldn't visit especially if you like the ones from shuttle to pop Well, my favorite part of the trip was probably having a very In-depth understanding of the the region just by tasting and talking to a couple of producers understanding goes through the different vintages and Having my impression of shuttle to pop changed After the trip, I actually like the wines a lot a lot a lot a lot more now And so come on. We are near the elves. I get to eat cheese every day My favorite part of the trip was the first after the first night of late-pretend station of to pop There was a producer party where all producers brought magnums or bigger and they had Vintage is going back to 1974 In the 90s obviously some current vintages, but it was almost like it was awesome But it was almost like overload because there were so many great That was really fun and I stayed until like I think 2 a.m. Dancing and tasting wine at night. It was a lot of fun So if you get the if you get the chance to taste some shut up to pop the wines are alive and well Check out the recent string of excellent vintages 2015 and 16 so guys if you like this video, please subscribe to our YouTube channel exotic wine travel I will see you at the next episode