2026 Trousseau

The 2026 Trousseau brings together fruit from two distinctive South Australian sites: our young estate plantings in McLaren Vale and the established Rocky Valley Road vineyard at Rusden Estate in Vine Vale, Barossa Valley. This is the first vintage to include Trousseau from our own McLaren Vale vineyard. Block 11 was planted in 2023, with 11 rows covering just 0.25ha on ironstone sand of the Kurrajong Formation. Block 12, planted in 2022, comprises a further 11 rows across 0.39ha, growing on sandy, silty and gravelly low-plasticity clay, also within the Kurrajong Formation. Both blocks are trained to raised 1.3m cordons, allowing sheep to graze beneath the vines each year as part of our regenerative vineyard management model. The second component comes from Rusden Estate's Rocky Valley Road Trousseau in Vine Vale, Barossa Valley. This small plot grows in alluvial sand, within Rusden's distinctive deep white sand over red clay terroir. Cooling afternoon breezes moderate the warm ar Barossa conditions and contribute to the site's suitability for Trousseau. An early-ripening variety, Trousseau is particularly well suited to warm South Australian conditions. Bringing these two sites together gives us an opportunity to explore the variety across two regions: the youthful energy of our McLaren Vale vines alongside the character of Rusden's established Vine Vale planting. Both sites share free-draining, sand-influenced soils and warm growing conditions, producing the freshness, is, producing aromatic red fruit, spice and fine structure that make Trousseau such an exciting variety.

The two vineyard parcels were harvested separately, reflecting the different ripening patterns of McLaren Vale and the Barossa Valley. Our first estate-grown Trousseau was handpicked on 18 February at 11.9 Baumé, yielding one tonne of fruit with an average bunch weight of just 110g and a pH of 3.37. The Rusden Estate fruit followed on 10 March, picked at 11 Baumé, yielding 2.6 tonnes with a pH of 3.61. Each parcel was fermented separately, with 20% whole bunch clusters retained to build aromatic lift, gentle spicee and structure. Cool fermentations and daily gentle pump-overs were used to preserve the bright fruit character of Trousseau while extracting fine, delicate tannins. Both parcels also underwent full malolactic fermentation. Following fermentation, the wines remained separate and matured in seasoned French oak for approximately six months, allowing each vineyard parcel to develop independently without introducing overt oak character. After maturation, the McLaren Vale and Barossa Valley components were blended and adjusted before bottling in mid-August. The resulting wine brings together two distinct expressions of Trousseau, with vibrant red fruit, freshness and fine structure at the forefront.