Fumé blanc
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Fumé blanc is a California wine similar to an oaked Sauvignon blanc. Fumé blanc which may be used as a synonym for Sauvignon blanc in the US. It was first used as a wine name by Napa Valley's Robert Mondavi Winery in 1968.
Mondavi had been offered a crop of particularly good Sauvignon blanc grapes by a grower. At that time the variety had a poor reputation in California, but Mondavi recalled enjoying French Pouilly-Fumé, a Sauvignon blanc-based wine from France's Loire Valley. Also, "blanc fumé" is the local name of a white fog from the river below that envelops the Loire. Looking for a "new label", Mondavi Americanized the name.
Robert Mondavi oak-aged Sauvignon blanc was released under the name Fumé blanc in 1968 and became an immediate success, and the name was later officially accepted as a synonym for Sauvignon blanc. This was at least in part due to the fact that Mondavi deliberately did not trademark the name, instead encouraging other wineries to create their own versions.
The most noted example is Mondavi's To-Kalon Vineyard Sauvignon blanc.
After Mondavi's innovation, winemakers in California tended to produce wines made from Sauvignon blanc grapes in one of two styles. The Fumé blanc style (with that term on the label) was supposedly modeled on the Loire Valley fashion that served as Mondavi's inspiration; the wines were smoky, minerally (in the sense of flint and limestone) and elegant. The other manner was inspired by the white wines of Bordeaux's Graves region and produced wines that were riper, richer and more opulent; these carried the name of the Sauvignon blanc grape on the label. The differences between the wines were reflected in the bottles that held them, the high-shouldered Bordeaux-style bottle for "Sauvignon blanc," the slope-shouldered Loire or Burgundy-style bottle for "Fumé blanc."
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