2019 Trousseau

It’s always a pleasure to taste with Tegan Passalacqua, one of the most thoughtful, ardent custodians of America’s viticultural and winemaking heritage. His Sandlands range is full of compelling wines, most of them tiny bottlings, and all of them well worth the effort of finding. Chenin Blanc, Mataro, Mission, Carignan and Trousseau are some of the off-the-beaten track varieties readers can explore here in a range that really transports the taster to another era, a time when California’s vineyards were far more diversified than they are today. As always, winemaking here is minimalist and stripped down to the bare essentials. What comes through is the expression of a grape (or blend) from a site (often old vines) in a vintage. That’s it. The 2019s are stellar across the board and very highly recommended.