Saturday Night – Twice the Fumé, twice the fun – Part 1

Last Saturday night we tried a bottle of 2009 Robert Mondavi “To Kalon” Fumé Blanc paired with chicken pesto on a bed of bean and corn salad and loved it.  We gave this wine a 90.75 rating which put it second on the Top Ten Whites.  Our usual pairing with Fumé Blanc is spicy shrimp with mint sauce and we decided to have the wine again to see how it did with it.  I grabbed a bottle off the rack opened and poured it and Mick made the comment “Napa Valley Fumé… what is this crap?”  I took a closer look at the bottle and realized that I grabbed a 2005 Robert Mondavi “Napa Valley” Fumé Blanc and not the 2009 Robert Mondavi “To Kalon” Fumé Blanc  I meant to open.  The “Napa Valley” version is the cheaper cousin to the “To Kalon” version but they are both in nearly identical bottle so it is easy to mistake the two wines.  So I grabbed the “To Kalon” and opened it as well.  What the heck, a little heads up Fumé Blanc competition could be fun.

As we reviewed the 2009 Robert Mondavi “To Kalon” Fumé Blanc last week, we are going to focus more on the 2005 Robert Mondavi “Napa Valley” Fumé Blanc for this review.

The nose on the 2005 was a little funky as a  ‘barnyard’ /blue cheese aromas were the most dominate with some peach, vanilla and pineapple aromas lurking in the background.  The peach, vanilla and pineapple aromas carried through to the taste as well.  The “Napa Valley” Fumé had huge razor sharp acidity to it and really got big in the mid-palette with the flavours but then quickly disappeared on the finish.  Compared to the “To Kalon” it was much sharper and seemed very one dimensional.  It was however a slightly better pairing with the spicy shrimp as it tended to alleviate the ‘burn’ better than the To Kalon did. Without the food pairing, the To Kalon was the clear winner between the two wines.

Here is the group rating for the wine –Mick – 88, Mark – 88, Kathy – 87, Amy – 87, Overall – 87.5.

Here is the LCBO information for the wine –

ROBERT MONDAVI FUMÉ BLANC

VINTAGES 221887
750 mL bottle
Price: $ 22.95
Made in: California, USA
By: Constellation Wines U S
Release Date: N/A
Wine, White Wine
13.9% Alcohol/Vol.
Varietal: Fume Blanc

I liked the Napa Valley Fumé, not as much as the To Kalon but it was a strong pairing and at half the price of the To Kalon a pretty good value.

Click here for Part 2