The Wine Pair Podcast

WTF is Trousseau? (Jura wine exposed!)

• The Wine Pair • Season 1 • Episode 187

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All the cool kids are talking about wines from Jura, but should you believe the hype? Well, when it comes to the red wine Trousseau, we say a resounding YES! If you have never heard about the Jura wine region in France, it’s time to let you in on the secret so you can be part of the hip “in” crowd. And if you are a Pinot Noir or Gamay lover, we have a wine that we think is going to be a new go-to for you. Tucked away in a little corner of France between Burgundy and Switzerland is Jura, and one of the signature wines is Trousseau which is a fruity, elegant, juicy gem ready to be discovered. This is the perfect wine for our podcast listeners - delicious, under-the-radar, reasonably priced, and a wow-your-friends wine. Join us as we uncover the mystery! We also talk about an international wine scam in our Wine in the News this Week section, and we have another listener interview on the name for our wine tribe this week. Wines reviewed in this episode: 2020 Frederic Lornet Charles Rouget Cotes du Jura Trousseau, 2023 Domaine Ligier Arbois Trousseau

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Show Notes

Episode #187: WTF is Trousseau? (Jura wine exposed!)  00:00

Hello fellow Vino Virtuosos! And welcome to The Wine Pair Podcast. I’m Joe, your sommelier of reasonably priced wine, and this is my wife and my wine pairing partner in crime, Carmela. And we are The Wine Pair!

If you are new to our podcast, here is what you can expect. If you love wine and want to find great wines at affordable prices, and you want to expand your wine horizons, and you want to have some laughs and fun while doing it - then you are in the right place! Each week we explore a different wine varietal, style, brand, or region of the winemaking world, and learn about what makes them worth knowing about. And then we taste 2-3 of those wines that are reasonably priced to let you know if they are worth your hard earned money. If that feels like your vibe, then we are super happy you are here. And, we are proud to say that Decanter Magazine calls us fun, irreverent, chatty, and entertaining.

Well, in this episode Carmela we are going to learn about and taste and review the cult wine called Trousseau from the very trendy wine region in France called Jura, but before we do that, let’s check in with listener Christine R, also known as Tips2Liveby on the socials, so two Christine’s in a row giving us tribe names and joining us on the podcast - and so let’s learn a little more about the name of our tribe that she gave us this week.

Interview with listener Christine R AKA Tips2LiveBy 02:07

I keep saying this, Carmela, but I am loving getting the chance to talk to our listeners. It is so fun to get to know them and give them the chance to not only name our wine tribe, but also get on the pod. Christine also wanted to make sure you knew she called out Sauvignon Blanc and fish tacos. So, just remember, send us an idea you have for a name for our Wine Pair Podcast tribe and we’ll see if you want to be a guest on our show! And don’t worry those of you who have already sent names in, we will get to you, just be patient!

But, Carmela, back to wine, and on to our special segment before we get to learning about the wine Trousseau and the wine region Jura - Carmela it’s time for . . .

WIne in the news this week: UK fraudster pleads guilty in NY court for massive fine-wine scam  08:04


So, this one feels like one of those Netflix documentaries we really like, Carmela. The article is called UK fraudster pleads guilty in NY court for massive fine-wine scam.  According to Yahoo News and other outlets, a British businessman named James Wellesley has pleaded guilty in New York over a nearly $100 million wine fraud scheme.

Here’s the story. He and his partner Stephen Burton ran something called Bordeaux Cellars, which pitched itself as a fine-wine investment house. Investors were told their money was backed by rare and collectible bottles of Bordeaux and other expensive wines. But, it turns out it was just a Ponzi scheme: new money went to pay old investors, and the bottles weren’t nearly what they were promised.

These two guys were basically taking advantage of the fact that wine often is a bit mysterious, opaque, and kind of an “insider” market where people rely on experts. They forged documents to make it look legit, and so investors really believed they had rare bottles of wine to back their money. 

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, the fraud ran internationally, with victims in the U.S., UK, and Asia. Burton was arrested in Thailand back in 2022 and extradited, while Wellesley has been fighting charges but is now flipping to a guilty plea.

The plea means he’s facing a significant prison sentence, maybe as many as 20 years, and investors may get at least some restitution. But the bigger story is how this keeps happening. Fine wine has been a magnet for scammers! Remember Rudy Kurniawan in the U.S. a decade ago? The counterfeit king of Burgundy? Same playbook: promise wealth, sprinkle in exclusivity, and then run off with the money.

Carmela, here’s a couple of questions for you:

  • If you were an investor, would you ever put money into a “wine hedge fund,” or does that sound like a terrible idea from the start?
  • Why do you think people fall for this stuff — is it greed, ignorance, or just the romance of wine?
  • And here’s a fun one: if we were going to run our own wine scam — purely hypothetical, of course! — what angle do you think we’d take?


But we are not here to talk about ponzi schemes or British scam artists. No! We are here to talk about the French wine from the hip and cool wine region called Jura to taste the cult wine called Trousseau, and we have two Trousseau wines we are going to learn about, taste and review today to see if either or both are worth you hard earned money . . .

But first . . . we have to do our shameless plug.

I want to change up our shameless plug a little this week Carmela. First, we really want to thank you for listening to our podcast, and for helping to make our podcast one of the top food podcasts in the US. And we want you to know our podcast is a labor of love that we do for you. We do all the work on the podcast ourselves and we spend many hours each week choosing and buying the wines; writing, recording, and editing the episodes; distributing the podcast; updating our website; creating our newsletter; updating our social media presence and all sorts of other stuff. We don’t pay anyone to do that for us, and we do it because we really love making this podcast and we really love and appreciate you all for taking time to be with us each week. And so we always feel a little sheepish asking, but all we really ask from you is that you keep coming back each week, that you follow and subscribe to our podcast, that you tell your family and friends about us, and that you give us a positive 5 star rating and review wherever you get your podcast because all of these things help us to our listeners and let us know you appreciate what we do. Thank you so much, and we really do feel grateful for all of you. It means a lot.

And we want to make content you care about and you like, so send us a note or slip into our DM’s and give us some feedback or let us know if there are wines you want us to try or wine making areas of the world you are curious about - and we’ll take care of it! We always we respond and we love to hear from you. joe@thewinepairpodcast.com, visit our website thewinepairpodcast.com, and you can also find links to purchase the wines we rate as buys in our episodes.

  • Shout out to Bud via email - who has been trying to get us to do an episode on Virginia wines and so he was very happy we are starting to release some episodes on Virginia wine makers!
  • LD4K4 who left a comment for us on Spotify and corrected us on the number of Grand Cru and Premier Cru appellations in Chablis. We don’t mind being corrected!
  • And shout outs to our friends on the socials who comment and send us DMs like Ryan F and Andrew H and JDM and Wa Wine Girl. We really appreciate you!


And, as we do every week, we’ll tell you someone we think you should recommend The Wine Pair Podcast to - because the best way for us to grow listeners is when you tell your family and friends about us - and this week, we want you to recommend us to anyone who is curious about the Jura wine region or is interested in learning about a wine that it seems only the cool kids know about.

RESEARCH ARTICLES AND LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE


Topic: WTF is Trousseau wine? 17:21

Carmela, it’s time to find out just what the eff Trousseau wine is.

As we mentioned, Trousseau is a bit of a cult wine from a very trendy wine area of France called Jura, and it has a really interesting history which we are going to talk about - but before that, we have to talk about maybe the greatest thing about it. Trousseau is known by several names including Trousseau Noir, but the best alternative name for the wine is what they call it in Portugal which is, wait for it, Bastardo. I kid you not.

DNA testing of Trousseau has shown that it is a sibling to Chenin Blanc and Sauvignon Blanc, and Trousseau and its siblings are the offspring of the grape Savagnin, also known as Traminer, of which Gewürztraminer is an aromatic mutation. So a lot of family relationships there, like one of those DNA home testing kits, which, by the way, if you want a life of crime, do not, and I repeat do not, do one of those DNA tests or let your family members do them. But interesting that it comes from basically white wine grapes while it is a red wine.

Jura, where again the wine is from, is one of the tiniest and quirkiest wine regions in the world. The Jura is tucked-in between Burgundy and Switzerland - if you look on a map it is in the eastern part of France, and about in the middle of the country. If you don’t know anything about Jura, what you should know is that Jura has gone from being a sleepy, obscure, and ignored backwater to one of the hottest regions in wine. If you want to be seen as trendy and hip and in the know among wine nerds, you need to know Jura.

Trousseau is said to be an ancient grape with roots in Jurassic soil - and for a really cool fun fact to put in your brain box, the Jurassic period of earth’s history is named after the Jura mountains which is, yes, in the Jura region, where these wines are from.

Alongside the grape Poulsard, Trousseau is one of the two indigenous red grapes of the Jura region. However, Trousseau is not a widely  grown grape even in Jura, and it actually makes up less than 8% of the total Jura vineyard area. So if you haven’t heard of it before, that could be one of the reasons why.

The information I got online that you can find links to in our show notes say that Trousseau is a grape that has been grown in many different places and with many different names over the years. Trousseau found a real home in Portugal where, again, it became known as Bastardo, and it has been considered an important blending grape in Port and Madeira. In Spain, the grape is known as Merenzao, Verdejo Negro, or Maturana Tinta and has been made as both a single varietal and part of blends in places like Galicia and Rioja in Spain.

Today, there are several areas in the US that are starting to grow and make wine from Trousseau, including the North Coast in California and Willamette Valley in Oregon, and it is also being made in Argentina, Australia, Tasmania, and Ukraine.

Trousseau is a grape that can fool you if you don’t know much about it. In the glass, it tends to look really light and delicate, kind of like Pinot Noir or Beaujolais. And, the grapes are said to resemble rustic Pinot Noir.

But this is not a light or wimpy wine. It’s generally considered bright and zippy, with sour, crunchy red fruits and some earthiness or mushroom-y-ness. When I tried a Jura wine I had bought a few months ago that was a blend of Trousseau and Pinot Noir and Poulsard, I found it really funky, very mushroomy, and, frankly I did not like it much at all. So we will see what we think of just a pure Trousseau. Some even say it’s a little like Nebbiolo because it looks pale but actually has some power behind it, but we will be the judge of that.

Now, about the whole cult wine thing. The reason Trousseau is so culty, some say, is because it showed up just when people were getting tired of big, heavy reds. California winemakers have jumped on this trend too, making lighter styles wines that stand out from the typical punch-you-in-the-face wines that often come from California. So, it came at the right time in terms of people looking for new, lighter red wines

In addition, the fact that it comes from a small, mostly unknown area where they don’t make a ton of wine and where they focus on traditional, low-intervention winemaking methods has made it the perfect place for the cool kids to make a big deal out of.

Whether or not it deserves its reputation we are going to start to find out today. As I mentioned, my experience with Jura wines so far has not been awesome. Maybe today will change that.

But that’s enough information. I think it’s time to learn a little more about the specific wines we are drinking today. Whaddya say?


Trousseau Wines We Chose for This Episode 24:32

As usual, the wines we have chosen for this episode are just under $25, and both of them should be relatively easy to find because I bought them both at wine.com. I should say that the Jura I picked up before that I was mentioning I got at an online wine shop that is local here called Garagiste but that I think ships around the country. Jura is probably becoming easier to find since it has gotten this cult status, so I would be pretty confident that if you went to a wine shop that caters to the hipsters or wine nerds or one that focuses on French wine or lower-intervention wines or has a good European wine selection, you should be able to find it. And, as always, just ask your local wine merchant to help you and they will. 

The first wine we are going to drink is the 2020 Frederic Lornet Charles Rouget Cotes du Jura Trousseau. I had a little trouble finding the specific tech sheet for this vintage, so we’ll see how close we can get to the pin from other information I could find on the interwebs.

The winery says the vines are 30 years old and are planted in red clay and limestone, so good bad soil to grow grapes. Remember, grapes like water stress, so that’s why I say good bad soil. They focus on keeping the grape yields low so they can grow better quality grapes.

The grapes are destemmed and are fermented in oak foudres (foo-drah) which are very large oak barrels ranging from 500 to 5000 litres, and then they say they use daily cap management, the cap being the skins and stuff that floats to the top of the fermenting chamber, including pumpovers for the entire10-day fermentation period. So, each day for 10 days they are extracting flavor and color with pump over of juice on top of the cap. The wine is then aged in oak barrels for one year. So, I expect this wine to have some oaky grip to it, and we’ll see if we think it is too much. 

I could not find any professional ratings for this wine, so let’s move on to the next one. 

The second wine we are going to taste and review is the 2023 Domaine Ligier Arbois Trousseau. Again, this wine like the previous one did not have any professional ratings. 

Domaine Ligier is a family run estate that focuses on sustainable farming and they have been making wines for what they say are generations. The soils are gravelly and they also mention shallow marls which is a pale mud that is often found in swamplands or shallow lakes. So, again, good bad soil. 

The winery says the grapes are hand harvested and fermented for 12 to 15 days, and the information I could find says they are aged in vats for 10-12 months to preserve the wine’s freshness and character. They did not indicate what the vats were made with, but the notes I could find indicated they do not use oak. If that is the case, I would expect a pretty different wine than the first one.  Lighter, fresher, and likely easier drinking. 

But, I think that is enough information - let’s get to drinking! We’ll take a quick break and be right back. And, if you have these wines or similar wines, drink along with us to get some participation points, which you can trade-in for free stickers. You just need to send me an email with your mailing address, and I will get those “I drink with The Wine Pair Podcast” stickers over to you!


LINKS TO SOURCES FOR THESE SPECIFIC WINES


2020 Frederic Lornet Charles Rouget Cotes du Jura Trousseau, 2023 Domaine Ligier Arbois Trousseau Wine Tasting, Pairing, and Review 29:43

Wine: Frederic Lornet Charles Rouget Cotes du Jura Trousseau (Click here to find this wine on wine.com. We may be compensated if you purchase)
Region: France, Jura
Year: 2020
Price: $23.97
Retailer: wine.com
Alcohol: 12.5%
Grapes: Trousseau
Professional Rating: Vivino 3.7

What we tasted and smelled in this Frederic Lornet Charles Rouget Cotes du Jura Trousseau: 

  • Color: Very light red, a little pink and translucent, very pretty
  • On the nose: Cranberry, pomegranate, crunchy red fruit, raspberry, light cherry, dried cranberry, vanilla, spice, white pepper, rose, fragrant
  • In the mouth: A little dirt and mushroom, juicy, jam, tart raspberry, strawberry jam, tangy, slightly grippy tannin. Elegant


Food to pair with this Frederic Lornet Charles Rouget Cotes du Jura Trousseau: Versatile with food, steak, barbecue, chicken piccata, pan fried chicken with garlic and lemon, Thanksgiving wine, chicken teriyaki, pork, lighter meat
 
As a reminder on our rating scale, we rate on a scale of 1-10, with no half points, where 7 and above means that we would buy it, and 4 and below means that we are likely to pour it down the sink, and a 5 or 6 means we are likely to drink it and finish it, but we are probably not going to buy it. 

Frederic Lornet Charles Rouget Cotes du Jura Trousseau Wine Rating: 

  • Joe: 8/10
  • Carmela: 7/10


Wine: Domaine Ligier Arbois Trousseau (Click here to find this wine on wine.com. We may be compensated if you purchase)
Region: France, Jura
Year: 2023
Price: $24.97
Retailer: wine.com
Alcohol: 13%
Grapes: Trousseau
Professional Rating: Vivino 3.8

What we tasted and smelled in this Domaine Ligier Arbois Trousseau: 

  • Color: Light red, very translucent, almost like Campari
  • On the nose: Tart, crunchy red fruit, fruit right off the vine, raspberry, sweet smelling, dried raspberry, freeze dried raspberry, a little chocolate, clay pot, herbs, oregano
  • In the mouth: Juicy tart, raspberry, sweet fruit juice, fruit cup, strawberry maceration, a little tannin, very pleasant, easy drinking


Food to pair with this Domaine Ligier Arbois Trousseau: Feels like a summer picnic wine, sticky sweet and spicy barbecue, Thanksgiving, grilled foods, summer cookout, grilled marinated flank, tailgate wine, spicy chicken wings, fried foods
 

Domaine Ligier Arbois Trousseau Wine Rating: 

  • Joe: 7/10
  • Carmela: 8/10



Which one of these are you finishing tonight?

  • Carmela: Domaine Ligier Arbois Trousseau
  • Joe: Frederic Lornet Charles Rouget Cotes du Jura Trousseau



Taste profiles expected from Trousseau  43:36

  • General 
    • Trousseau wine typically has notes of red fruits, such as strawberry and cherry, combined with savory and spicy notes like wild herbs, pepper, and minerality. It is often described as light-bodied, energetic, and aromatic, with complex flavors that can evolve with age to include hints of forest floor, earth, and mushroom. Some wines may also have a slightly bitter or pithy, amaro-like quality, sometimes with notes of citrus or pine. 
  • Frederic Lornet Charles Rouget Cotes du Jura Trousseau
    • Winery:  A light ruby color, with aromas of red fruit and spice. The mouth offers flavors of raspberry and pepper. The palate is of medium body, with a lingering finish on the palate.
  • Domaine Ligier Arbois Trousseau
    • Winery: With a solid, round structure, this wine gently develops complex aromas of red and black fruits (strawberry, Morello cherry, blackcurrant, blackberry). The fruit persists for a long time, followed by fine tannins on the finish.
    • Decant SF: This vintage is lifted and savory, with notes of strawberry, morello cherry, blackberry, and blackcurrant leaf. The tannins are fine, the fruit persistent, and the finished mineral, fresh, and a little savory. It is a light red that drinks easily at cellar temperature


What is your verdict on Trousseau? 45:32
A great wine. We are totally in - thumbs up. If you like Pinot Noir or Gamay you will like this wine.

Wines coming up in episodes 45:57
Orange wine


Charbono/Bonarda


Spätburgunder


Barolo from Costco and Trader Joes

Outro and how to find The Wine Pair Podcast 46:29

Ok, so, Carmela, it’s time for us to go, but before we do, we want to thank you very much for listening to us - and if you haven’t done so yet, now would be the perfect time to follow or subscribe to our podcast and also a fantastic time to leave us a nice rating and review on our website or Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts - and it is an awesome and free way to support us and help us grow listeners.

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Alright, with that, we are going to sign off, so thanks again, and we will see you next time. And, as we say, life is short, so stop drinking shitty wine.

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