2023 Trousseau Gris

100% Trousseau Gris

The grapes for this wine come from Fanucchi Wood Road Vineyard in Russian River Valley, which is also famous for its Zinfandel. These old vines were planted in 1981 to a quadrilateral trellis system, high off the ground to reduce the risk of frost. The soils are sandy loam. Peter Fanucchi farms this vineyard sustainably. We have asked him to farm the vineyard organically, but we can’t be certain if he is following through. This is pretty much the only Trousseau Gris vineyard in the United States; there are other places to find the variety, but they are very small plantings.

This wine is really fun to watch open up in the glass. At first is stony and mineral with lots of white nectarine on the palate. As it opens up and the temperature comes up, the stony aromatics begin to express a bit of white cherry, jasmine and honeycomb. The palate firms up with pluot, key lime, and an intense slate-like minerality that builds through the finish. It will be interesting to watch this wine age!

This is a perfect wine for lighter fare and also spicy cuisine. Halibut ceviche or a smoked trout salad with a tangy vinaigrette would be ideal partners. The mild and savory tones of sushi would also pair perfectly.

Whenever we make a wine, one of the main things we consider is how can we make it super sexy. Sexy to us means: full of intrigue, bone dry, lightly textured and mineral. Most Trousseau Gris is made with skin contact but we knew that for the type of wine we wanted to make, it had to be direct to press. Trousseau Gris is a low acid and high pH variety; skin contact would further raise the pH and make the wine blocky, salty and…not sexy.

We settled the juice for 24 hours before we racked to another tank for fermentation. Once fermentation started natively, we transferred the juice to two 700L concrete eggs and neutral 600L demi muids for fermentation which lasted about two weeks. The wine was aged eight months on its lees. We racked about three weeks before bottling and then returned the wine to its original vessels. Just before the bottling date, we racked the wine to a tank. It was bottled without fining or filtration. The wine may throw a haze or may have a deposit, but this is nothing to be worried about; instead rejoice in the natural beauty!

Production: 270 cases | ABV: 11.8% | TA: 5.59 g/L | pH: 3.22 | VA: 0.49 g/L | DCO2: 1240 ppm | Total SO2: 44 ppm | RS: 0.9 g/L | MALIC: 0 g/L | Turbidity at bottling: 9.9 NTU

Download a technical data sheet here.

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