Driftwood Artifacts Fumé Blanc 2024
- 92
- $40
- Drink by: 2025-2028
Share
The name, ‘Fumé Blanc’, was conjured by Robert Mondavi, the legendary Napa winemaker (or possibly someone on his marketing team), for Sauvignon Blanc which has seen a little more influence from the winemakers than we often see, giving the wines an extra level of depth and complexity. The ‘fumé’, suggests a smoky note and we often see that, in this case from wild fermentation in ‘big, toasty barrels’. The colour is a lemon/green, and the wine shows extra intensity and that level of complexity the style demands, but it remains neatly balanced. We have citrus, peaches, apricot, passionfruit, evidence of oak still integrating and some orange rind notes. There is focus and a lingering finish. It would work very nicely with a rich fish dish. For drinking over the next few years, the question of whether one prefers this to their Savvy Sem blend is inevitable. While they are quite different in style, as to quality, toss a coin. Love them both.
Ken was born and bred in Brisbane, Queensland. He had a non-trendy, perfectly happy childhood, in a family convinced alcohol meant instant condemnation to Hades. But a break fishing on the Great Barrier Reef, and some good wine, started a serious obsession that eventually took over. It did not stop Ken being chastised later for drinking Pol champagne, disgusted he’d drink anything made by a Cambodian dictator. Now, Ken mostly writes on wine, champagne and spirits for various newspapers, magazines and books, but is perhaps best known for his work in The Courier Mail. He also has a little sideline writing on cigars, fishing, travel and food. When not writing, fly-fishing for trout in NZ or bonefish on the flats of Cuba, travelling or smoking cigars, he is no doubt following a variety of sporting teams – the occasionally glorious Queensland Reds rugby, the dysfunctional Washington Redskins, the dodgy Arsenal and especially revels in the world restored to its proper axis with the return of the Ashes to their rightful home.
