This is a story about the grape variety Trousseau. In 1998 in the Swan Valley Western Australia, my organic vineyard was not established.  I wanted to purchase grapes from good Swan Valley growers.

I was introduced to Bill Vinicombe.  His family owned the old Socol property on the eastern side of the railway line in Herne Hill.

Bill had three vineyards, one on the red bank along the Swan River, another in Herne Hill beside the highway and the rest east of the railway line. On Great Northern Highway the block contained muscat a petits grains rouge, pedro ximenez and a few alternate varieties. Bill called one “black riesling”.

So fond of the variety he grafted a row of cabernet sauvignon over to this unknown variety on his home block beside the Swan River.

Several knowledgeable persons had looked at this variety regarding identification. At one stage Petit Verdot and Petit Morceau we discussed, however, the grape matured to high Baume and much earlier than cabernet sauvignon. These were discounted.

Further identification in 2007 with the leaves and fruit matched against the pictures and description in the book,” Wine Grape Varieties” by Kerridge and Antecliff, I identified this as the Bastardo grape.

Trousseau Winemaking

Bill gave me half a tonne of grapes to process into wine in 2005.  French-style wine was made. That is; minimal intervention, natural yeasts, fermented warm on solids. Matured in a barrique for six months prior to bottling. Sold in 2006 at the cellar door under the label LEDASWAN 2005 Petite Verdot.

A young French winemaker Kevin Mazier came to experience the 2012 Swan Valley vintage with Harris Organic Wines. He brought with him two bottles, one was a bottle of Cotes du Jura, Domaine des Ronces, 2010 Trousseau wine.

I was intrigued to note that this was a wine I had seen before. In 2005 I tasted the variety Bastardo. Luckily there were two bottles of 2005 wine left in my cellar to taste against the younger 2010 bottle.

Kevin confirmed that even with age differences, these two wines were made of the same variety.

References

There are numerous references to the variety Bastardo and trousseau being similar varieties. Robinson, Jancis (2006). The Oxford Companion to Wine, third edition. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0198609902 mentions  ampelographer Comte A Odart.

Wikipedia states:

Bastardo (Trousseau Noir, Trousseau grape) is an old variety of red wine grape. It is grown in small amounts in many parts of Western Europe; most famously it is used in Portuguese port wine. It makes deep cherry red wines with high alcohol and flavours of red berry fruits.

Why would it be Trousseau?

A French man Joseph Millard lived in the Swan Valley many years ago.  From Guildford, he would ride his horse to the vineyard each day and ride home again. His vineyard had many varieties. He brought these directly from France when customs clearance was not an issue.   To be continued….