The deepest and most structured of the Jura's red grapes, Trousseau needs the warmest gravel slopes around Arbois to ripen — and there it gives a wine of surprising colour and grip, spicy and peppery, scented with redcurrant and orange peel. It is a grower's grape, fickle in the vineyard and thrilling when it comes right.
Long a minor figure beside the featherweight Poulsard, Trousseau has become a cult wine for the Jura's new wave of growers, prized for its perfume and its firm, savoury spine. Small in quantity and singular in character, it is one of eastern France's quiet treasures.