The deepest, most structured of the Jura's three red grapes, Trousseau demands the warmest gravel slopes to ripen and rewards them with a wine of surprising colour and grip — spicy, peppery, scented with redcurrant and orange peel. It is a grower's grape: fickle in the vineyard, thrilling when it comes right.
The same variety leads a double life abroad. As Bastardo it is a traditional component of Port; as Merenzao and Maria Ardoña it survives in pockets of north-west Spain and Portugal. In the Jura it is the firm counterpoint to featherweight Poulsard, and a cult grape for the region's new wave of growers.