Sauvignon Blanc Day

This Friday celebrates one of our favorite varietals: Sauvignon Blanc. A varietal grown all over the world, fashioning diverse aromas ranging from green-herbaceous notes to tropical-citrus flavors. We’ve produced this white wine in many different wineries all over the world, but our favorite location being New Zealand.

We worked for a very well-known New Zealand winery for the 2016 harvest helping to generate millions of cases of Sauvignon Blanc. The large production allowed us to learn about this varietal in-depth, specifically about how the climate, hang time, chemistry, and barrel exposure change this wine’s aromatics entirely.

Dane & Mckenzie 2016 in New Zealand

Having studied Sauvignon Blanc first hand, we decided on one specific style for our own Untamed brand: Fumé Blanc.

Brief History of Fumé Blanc

The California wine market in the 1960s was dominated by sweeter wines, namely a sweet Sauvignon Blanc. Robert Mondavi, one of the well-known vintners at the time, wanted to introduce something different to the wine market in attempt to endorse classically produced wine and sell through a large quantity of Sauvignon Blanc that he had on hand. In order to rebrand the “sweet” Sauvignon Blanc, Mondavi coined the term “Fumé Blanc,” a play on Pouilly-Fumé (a Sauvignon Blanc growing area from the Loire Valley). As a token to the traditional French Sauvignon Blanc, Mondavi aged the white wine in oak barrels highlighting a lean, mineralic, and slight oak flavor.

Untamed Fumé Blanc

Fermenting and aging the Sauvignon Blanc in barrel creates depth to a varietal that can be very one dimensional. Inspired by Mondavi’s Untamed spirit and marketing experimentation, we coined our wine after this Sauvignon Blanc creation.

Try our Fumé Blanc in celebration of Sauvignon Blanc Day!

https://www.untamedwines.com/product/2022-sauvignon-blanc