Fusain 2018

Grégoire and Cécile Rousseau started at Carsac-de-Gurson in 2006, in the northwest corner of the Bergerac country, and farm five hectares organically. Fusain is Merlot from a single parcel of roughly sixty-year-old vines on a north-facing slope where the limestone comes to the surface, and they only make it in the years that earn it. The name means charcoal, which turns out to be fair warning. There is graphite here alongside dark fruit, black pepper and something close to incense. Concentrated and properly built, with the tannins worn smooth, and that north-facing limestone keeping it fresh despite the weight.