Pax Trousseau Gris "Fanucchi-Wood Road Vineyard" Russian River Valley

I was in California visiting wineries. Driving the Silverado Trail, Highway 128, Petrified Forest Road. It was autumn. The weather was glorious. I was up early every day, covering as much ground as I could. Beautiful days, all of them, but they were long.

One night — it was nine o’clock — I pulled into a restaurant by a meadow. I asked for a table. I ordered a dish of food and a bottle of wine. A wine I hadn’t had before. The wine arrives. Its colors are roseate and blood orange. I drink, and it’s wild summer strawberry and juicy watermelon. It’s nectarine, apricot, Pink Lady, and orange blossom. It’s ocean and sunshine and acid laced with tannin. I want to take my clothes off! I want to sprint naked into the meadow! I look again at the bottle. Is this juice magic?

You might call it exotic rosé. You might call it a new kind of orange wine. Whatever you call it, Pax Trousseau Gris Fanucchi-Wood Road Vineyard Russian River Valley is joyful. It’s exciting. It’s a wine you can lose yourself in.

Pax Muhle made his name in the world of wine as the maker of rich, powerful California Syrah. Today, the wine world knows Pax as the maker of elegant California Syrah from vineyards around the Sonoma Coast and Russian River Valley, as well as refined styles of Chenin Blanc, Gamay, Carignan, and this glorious Trousseau Gris.

The skin color of Trousseau Gris is deep pink and blood orange, a color mutation of the red berry Trousseau Noir grape of Jura. As a pink berry grape, Trousseau Gris can’t make red wine, and macerating its skins doesn’t exactly yield rosé. Which led Pax to make his Trousseau Gris in the Ramato style of northern Italy. Ramato is a skin-contact winemaking style a few Italian winemakers apply to Pinot Grigio, a grape with a skin color like the color of Trousseau Gris. It’s a style of winemaking which yields the Pax Trousseau Gris Russian River Valley its extraordinary colors, aromas, and flavors.

Pax crushes his Trousseau Gris by foot and hand. He carbonically macerates the wine, releasing more of the grape’s wild aromas. He ferments the wine with natural yeasts and doesn’t add any sulfur to its juice. His goal is to make his Trousseau Gris as naturally as possible.

The 2021 Pax Trousseau Gris Fanucchi-Wood Road Vineyard Russian River Valley is as beautiful as the vintage I first tasted by the meadow. Aromas of wild flowers and flavors of white peach, apricot, mint, and mustard seed, with a brace of stony minerality. It’s a versatile wine. An orange wine for every season of the year. An uninhibited California rosé. A true original.

It speaks to you and says, “Enjoy your life as much as you can!”

After that evening in the restaurant, I asked to have Pax Trousseau Gris sent to the shop. I was told the wine hadn’t been distributed to Wisconsin yet. But now it’s here! And you can order this magic juice from me.