2024 Arnot Roberts Trousseau, Healdsburg, california

The nose is all high-toned lift: wild strawberry, cranberry, blood-orange peel, rosewater, white pepper, cool herbs. Featherweight and crunchy on the palate, red fruit riding vibrant acidity with just a whisper of fine tannin for grip. Savory, citrus-tinged, clean finish. About 12.5% ABV, and it takes a chill well. Trousseau is a finicky, perfumed Jura grape, and Arnot-Roberts essentially put it on the California map — Duncan Arnot Meyers and Nathan Lee Roberts have made one since 2009 and remain the benchmark. The 2024 is Luchsinger-dominant, rounded out with Las Cimas fruit. Luchsinger sits at 1,400 feet on volcanic alluvium over ancient riverbed cobbles west of Clear Lake, where long warm days and cold nights keep the acid alive in an otherwise arid spot. Fermented 100% whole-cluster and aged in neutral French oak, puncheons, and foudre, so the perfume survives the cellar intact. It drinks somewhere between Poulsard and a good cru Beaujolais.