In California, ‘fumé’ wines are so-o-o passé

California sauvignon blanc just isn’t what it used to be.  And that’s most definitely a good thing.

For many years, this crisp, acidic grape was too often masked in oak and hawked as fumé blanc, a style that came about mostly because California winemakers — notably Robert Mondavi — were convinced no one would buy such a curiously named thing as sauvignon blanc. That, plus the fact that California vintners were having huge success with big, buttery chardonnays that used the crutch of oak aging.

So wineries gave their sauvignon blanc an unfortunate dose of wood and slapped on the new name. As recently as a decade ago, this was still largely the California formula, and it worked like a charm.

For a while.

“We were all making sauvignon blanc styles that were sometimes hard to taste the difference from chardonnay,” says Daryl Groom, winemaker at Sonoma’s Geyser Peak Winery. “If you want something to taste like chardonnay, you might as well make chardonnay.”

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Sauvignon blanc has always suffered from a bit of an identity crisis. In Bordeaux, winemakers mix it with semillon (in varying combinations) and age it in barrels to create a round, rich white wine. In the Loire Valley, meanwhile, under appellations like Sancerre and Pouilly Fumé (which shares nothing with the California stuff save part of its name), sauvignon blanc is almost always vinified on its own, usually in stainless steel or neutral oak barrels (or a combination).

Bordeaux can certainly find beauty in sauvignon blanc, and winemakers there rely on it to add finesse to Semillon-based Sauternes such as Chateau d’Yquem, one of the world’s most expensive bottlings. But it’s in the Loire that sauvignon blanc’s classic, unadorned beauty has been most lovingly expressed. Sancerre, especially, is renowned for displaying the grape’s bright, grassy essence. 

Then in 1985, New Zealand’s Cloudy Bay sauvignon blanc was released, signaling a new take on an old style. Southern Hemisphere winemakers largely followed a Sancerre approach — highlighting the fruit’s grassy, citrusy nature — but offered an even crisper expression of the grape. The result: In the past 20 years, New Zealand sauvignon blanc has upended the sauvignon blanc market, casting it in consumers’ minds as an approachable, affordable wine meant for casual drinking.

Initially, California stuck with its fumé formula. But sauvignon blanc’s fortunes in the state are changing. While fumé blanc has by no means disappeared, many wineries are losing the oak and choosing to follow New Zealand’s lead. Much California sauvignon blanc now offers the same bright flavors as its Kiwi cousins, and while fumé blanc once topped the rankings of California wine awards, its acclaim has largely been usurped by the new methods.

One of the leaders in this mini-revolution, Geyser Peak's Daryl Groom, reached California in 1989, his native Australian palate already well acquainted with New Zealand’s steely style. In fact, his sauvignon blanc can easily convince you it hails from the other hemisphere, an achievement he manages by melding grapes from across a broad swath of the state — as far north as Lake County, northeast of Sacramento, and as far south as Monterey.  Grapes from cooler areas give his wine a sharp citrus note, while warmer-weather grapes give it a fuller mouthfeel without ever touching a barrel. (Another way that Groom maintains the zing in his sauvignon blanc is by keeping his considerable output — 112,000 cases — in cold storage tanks and releasing it in small batches. In this way, inventory doesn’t back up on shelves and bottles remain fresh.)

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Other sauvignon producers are more interested in a compromise approach, and it’s hard to find these wines’ roots in either the Loire or Bordeaux. David Coventry, of Morgan Winery in Salinas, Calif., takes cues from both French styles: His wines retain a clean, minerally taste, but he also uses barrel aging and a dose of semillon.

“We have to develop an individual personality. We can’t bag off the personality of France,” Coventry says. “There no longer is a mothership connection.”

The crucial factor, says Randy Mason of Oakville’s Mason Cellars, is that drinkers now consider California sauvignon blanc to be a wine that requires serious skill and application, rather than simply a second-stringer to chardonnay. “All of a sudden you’re seeing these great flavor profiles,” says Mason, who started using the grape at Lake Spring Winery in 1980, during the fumé heyday.

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