Robert Mondavi coined the term Fumé Blanc in an attempt to boost the profile and differentiate a new style of Sauvignon Blanc he was crafting in Napa Valley.
Sauvignon Blanc in the United States
Plantings of Sauvignon Blanc date back to the early 1880s in California’s Livermore Valley. Charles Wetmore planted the variety on his estate Cresta Blanca Winery; allegedly, the vines’ source material came from the legendary Château d’Yquem. Wetmore’s first release, from 1884, was a dry white wine from Bordeaux varieties that won a grand prize at the 1889 Paris Exposition.
Sauvignon Blanc made its way to Napa Valley around the same time. Plantings at Inglenook in the 1880s, and Beaulieu Vineyard in the early 1900s created early examples of quality wines throughout California’s burgeoning wine country. The white varietal had roots at the famous To Kalon site as early as the 1890s.
The rise of Fumé Blanc
By the 1960s, Sauvignon Blanc had fallen on hard times in America’s commercial wine sector. By this time, it was considered a bland variety, mainly used for sweet wine production to feed consumers of mass-production wines.
In an effort to separate his wines from this negative connotation, Mondavi coined the term Fumé Blanc. Mondavi’s riff on the Loire designation, Blanc Fumé was an effort to connote a new style of American-made Sauvignon Blanc, aged in oak barrels.
Mondavi took the French word ‘fumé’, referring to a smoke-like vapour or substance, which is also enshrined in the name of Pouilly-Fumé of the Loire Valley, and the French word for white, as in ‘blanc’.
He did not trademark the term, making it possible for other wineries to label their wines similarly, and created a category in the process.
Ageing Sauvignon Blanc with oak
In order to differentiate his Sauvignon Blancs from the American versions that were made at the time, Mondavi chose to age the wines in barrel, the toasted oak lending a hint of smoky character to the wines, thus the ‘fumé’. The style became popular.
More producers started ageing their dry Sauvignon Blanc in (old and new) oak barrels and selling it as ‘Fumé Blanc’. While the name has been more commonly associated with oak-aged Sauvignon Blanc from the US, it’s not a requirement. The lack of regulation around the term, primarily created for marketing, means it’s open to interpretation.
Robert Mondavi ‘only intended to find an alternative name for Sauvignon Blanc, without any indication of the production method and style,’ according to the winery.
Currently, the terms ‘Sauvignon Blanc’ and ‘Fumé Blanc’ are deemed synonyms in US law. In the Sonoma region, Dry Creek Vineyard was among the first to produce a ‘Fumé Blanc’ in California without using oak.
Inspired by the mineral, lean and fresh Sauvignon Blanc from Sancerre of the Loire Valley, the owner, David Stare, decided to make an unoaked ‘Fumé Blanc’ in 1972, according to the winery.
Is Fumé fading?
With New Zealand creating a global demand for fresh, dry styles of Sauvignon Blanc, the associations that Mondavi had hoped to avoid have largely become a thing of the past. As a result, you see fewer wines labelled as Fumé Blanc in the current American marketplace. While the designation still exists, its numbers have dwindled.
The world’s greatest Fumé Blanc, though, is still made by Robert Mondavi Winery from the iconic I block in the famous To Kalon Vineyard. The old, gnarly, head-trained vines planted in 1945 are considered the oldest planting of Sauvignon Blanc in the Americas.
