An obscure grape found in the Jura region of France and in the Douro region of Portugal has become indelibly linked to the rise of some of California’s most renowned boutique wineries.
As recently as the 1960s, California hosted thousands of acres of Trousseau Gris, though at the time it was better known as Grey Riesling. Today, however, a single 10-acre vineyard in Sonoma County remains the only source of this light-skinned mutation of Trousseau Noir in California, and there are only a few small plantings in Oregon. While Trousseau Noir vines are slightly more common, my estimates suggest they...