Fanucchi Wood Road Trousseau Gris Rose
⏳ Drinking Window
2021 - 2024
🍽️ Food & Wine Pairings
Charcuterie boards, grilled octopus, spicy Southeast Asian dishes
✨ Technical Specifications
Pax's Fanucchi Wood Road Trousseau Gris is a remarkable tribute to California's viticultural heritage. Sourced from the historic Fanucchi Wood Road Vineyard in the Russian River Valley—home to some of the last remaining old-vine Trousseau Gris in the United States—this wine breathes new life into a grape once commonly known as 'Grey Riesling.' The variety boasts unique pinkish-grey skins, which winemaker Pax Mahle coaxes into a stunning, pale-salmon rosé through deliberate skin contact. Fermented with native yeasts and aged in neutral vessels, this wine captures the essence of a nearly lost variety, offering a textured, savory, and highly aromatic profile that bridges the gap between white and orange wines.
🍾 About the Producer
Established in 2000 by Pax and Pam Mahle, Pax Wines emerged as an influential champion of cool-climate California viticulture, initially earning renown for single-vineyard expressions of Syrah. Operating out of an urban winery and tasting cellar in Sebastopol's Barlow district, the domaine collaborates closely with growers across coastal Sonoma County, Mendocino, and the Sierra Foothills. Viticulture centers on organically and sustainably farmed heritage plots, frequently anchored in fractured shale, marine sandstone, and decomposed granite. While early vintages leaned rich and assertive, Pax evolved toward an uncompromising low-intervention ethos characterized by whole-cluster foot stomping, spontaneous fermentations driven by ambient yeasts, neutral French oak aging, and minimal sulfur. Beyond benchmark Syrah bottlings such as Alder Springs, Griffin's Lair, and Castelli-Knight Ranch, the portfolio explores esoteric and heritage white varieties, notably old-vine Chenin Blanc, Vermentino, and Pinot Blanc, celebrated for their tensile acidity, savory transparency, and mineral cut.
🍇 Grapes
Trousseau Gris
🍷 ABV
12-12.5%