Did you know?
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In 1967, Robert Mondavi's winery was only a year old and one of its best wines was a low-temperature fermented Sauvignon Blanc that was aged in French oak barrels. (Sauvignon Blanc  was not a popular wine style in America at the time). Robert Mondavi modeled this wine on some "blanc fumé"  wines that he tried in the Loire (France). In 1968, Mondavi produced the Americanized version of the dry French wines he loved -- naming it Fumé Blanc -- and this wine stands, today, as one of Mondavi's most popular white wines.


1998 Unfiltered Fumé Blanc
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The first time I tried this wine (August 2000), I was having lunch at the Rutherfood Grill (right next to Beaulieu Vineyards, on Highway 29, in Rutherford, California.) I was eating their famous rotisserie roasted chicken with mashed potatoes and was very pleased with my wine choice. The 1998 Robert Mondavi Unfiltered Fumé Blanc is a beautiful, dry white wine that is barrel-fermented and sur lie aged in French Oak. (Sur lie aging: to add a yeasty or nutty character, wine and dead yeast cells are left in contact with each other in wooden barrels.)

This wine in bottled in an attractive, frosted glass bottle with an elegant, torn-border label. Although this wine is unfiltered (to preserve precious flavor components), it does not pour cloudy or with heavy sediments. In the glass, this wine actually pours clear -- with a very pale yellow color and a platinum shine. When you swirl the wine in the glass, you can see some very small particulate matter in the legs of the wine. (Legs: The more alcohol, the more legs. Legs are the "tears" that are produced inside the walls of a glass when the wine is swirled. "Legs" are produced because the ethanol in wine evaporates faster than the water in the wine, leaving a kind of streak or rivulet in the glass.)

This evening, my wife and I enjoyed a bottle of this great Fumé Blanc with some Schweineschnitzel   (boneless, breaded pork chop pan fried in the Viennese style and generally served with lemon wedges) with a light salad side and some browned rice. This wine features a lemon-grass nose along with some slight herbaceous, spicy, and soft vanilla tones. Dry green apples are presented early in the taste, moderated by pear, ripe goosebeery flavors, and a crisp, citrus finish in the end. Oak tones are subtle and are only noticed in the vanilla undertones.


My Recommendation
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Of all the varieties of white wines, I tend to prefer the dry Fumé Blanc wines the best. This one is produced from a blend of predominately Sauvignon Blanc grapes and a small measure of Semillon grapes (a thin skinned, slightly sweeter grape featuring grassy and citrusy tones and contracts 'noble rot' characters more easily) selected from a number of vineyards in the Napa Valley area.

I purchased this wine at Ralph's Supermarket here in California for $14. If you like dry, crisp, citrusy wines without the pronounced, buttery Diactyl tartaric acid esters common to some Chardonnays, then this would be one wine that I'd recommend. This is a fine wine to drink as an aperitif or first course wine. At 12.5% alcohol by volume, it is not overpowering and is soft enough to serve alone or with a light salad seasoned with Caesar dressing.

Do not confuse this wine with the 1998 Robert Mondavi Winery Fumé Blanc Reserve, which usually costs twice as much (retail $30-$35). For another wonderful review of this wine, please check out Sweetpaulie's (a.k.a. Paul Frye) New Year's 2000 review at:

http://www.epinions.com/fddk-review-126-9759EB5-386E9566-prod1

Thanks for reading and Cheers!


Recommended: Yes

Year: 1998
Winery Name: Robert Mondavi
Varietal: Sauvignon Blanc
Designation: Napa Valley
Country: USA
State or Region: Napa Valley, California
County or Appellation: Napa
Price: 14.00
Wine Rating Scale: Better than most