2008 Michel Gahier Trousseau Grands Vergers

2008 Michel Gahier Trousseau Grands Vergers

Trousseau and I seem to have a bit of a thing going on…..I’m a little infatuated with its wild-eyed stare at the moment but I can give up anytime…..honest…..I can.

Trousseau is also know as Bastardo…..or Cabernet Gros down this way. It originates from the Douro, where it is one of the 82 permitted varieties that can make there way into vintage port…how it made its way to the Jura is anybodies guess…..I say it was someone who drank too much port. It’s thought to be a cross of Duras x Petit Verdot and in the Jura you’ll find it in the following AC’s…..Côtes du Jura,  Arbois, Arbois Pupillin , Arbois Vin de Paille  and Crement de Jura.

The small village of Montigny-les Arsures near the town of Arbois is where Michel Gahier calls home. Michel inherited his family’s vineyard holdings and has been making his own wine since the 1980′s and bottling under his own name since the mid-1990′s. His 6ha of vineyards planted here include 3ha of Trousseau and it seems the Trousseau from Montigny has made a bit of a name for itself thanks to Michel and his next door neighbour….the grand-daddy of Jura wine and rockingly bearded, Jacques Puffeney.

Michel Gahier’s “Grands Vergers” lieu dit, lies right next door to Puffeney’s Berangeres vineyards, which has been considered the benchmark Trousseau in the region for many years. It is a superb planting of 80 year old vines and the work Michel carries out in the vineyard is meticulous to say the least.

In the winery he utilises naturally occurring yeasts and fermentation in old oak before ageing for 10 months in seasoned oak barrels……then to bottle for a little rest with no filtration or fining…..or sulphur for that matter…..now you can’t ask for too much more than that if you want a grape to strut its stuff…..and strut its stuff it surely does.

It sits a slightly subdued cherry red in the glass showing enchanting aromas of wild cherry, blackberry charcoal, veal jus, thyme, exotic spice, beef consomme with judicious touches of funk and a slight bucolic edge of gaminess. There is a real earthy, mineral tone to this wine that really draws you into the glass with some higher tones of dried flowers and macerated raspberries lying further in the background.

In the mouth the wine is just delicious…..savoury, stony and mineral-driven with an almost umami-like ache on the finish. There are flavours of wild cherry, blackberry and redcurrants flitting across the palate towards a mid-palate that swells with earthen intensity…..hints of spice, mixed herbs, green tobacco leaf, dried flowers, beef consomme and sous bois all making an appearance.

There is lovely detail and focus on the palate….it isn’t that far removed from Burgundy the way it flows in the mouth….though it is a little more masculine and assured in its gait. The tannins are fine grained and structured but seem to melt into the wine as the finish stretches out down a corridor a bright, crystalline acidity……earthen and driven by minerals.

Delicious drinking wine…..built for food and the cellar in equal measure.

Price:$41 – Closure: Cork – Alcohol: 12.5% 0 Source: Sample – Importer: Living Wines

This wine picks up a very solid “one nude blond chick on a horse” rating…..very impressive

Jura wine score craziness