The 2020 Fumé Blanc is softly scented of kiwi, green herbs, white flowers and baker's yeast, with a light-bodied, yeast-driven and very fresh palate. 175,000 cases produced.

The 2018 Fume Blanc gives soft scents of baker's yeast, Bosc pear, kiwi, cut grass and kaffir lime leaves with stony hints. The palate is light-bodied, rounded and zesty with uncomplicated flavors. 86,000 cases were made.

It is always obligatory when I taste or drink Ferrari-Carano’s Fumé Blancs to reference my mother. This was her favorite wine, and it was the only one where, with prodding, we could get enough in her to become euphoric. Why she liked it so much I never can be sure, but certainly every time I have had it, I can understand its popularity. It basically says one thing, “I am delicious.” In many ways, there is no need for a wine critic or any wine jargon if a wine can make that point quickly. In any event, the 2014 Fumé Blanc has a delightful, rather compelling, big sweet kiss of caramelized citrus, melons, a touch of peach and tropical fruits. Whatever French oak they use seems pushed way to the background, and the wine is exuberantly fruity, even effusive, with good acidity and always has stunning purity of character. This is a beauty, and with respect to my mother, she had it right. Drink this in its first year or so of life.

It is always with some degree of sentimentality when I taste Ferrari-Carano’s Fumé Blanc as this was my Mother’s favorite wine until she passed away in 2002. She even refused to eat at restaurants that didn’t carry it. The excellent 2013 Fumé Blanc exhibits plenty of honeyed melon, white peach, poached pear and other tropical fruit notes, underlying crisp acidity and a creamy, surprisingly flavorful mouthfeel. Drink this beauty over the next 12 months while waiting for the 2014 to be released.

The delicious 2012 Fume Blanc exhibits lots of melon, pineapple and fig notes in an exuberant, fresh, lively, medium-bodied style revealing no notion of oak in either the aromas or flavors. Drink this delicious, consumer-friendly, textbook Fume Blanc over the next year. Ferrari-Carano appears to have the correct formula for Fume Blanc. Perhaps I am a bit sentimental as it was my Mother’s favorite wine, and was the only wine with which I could ever get her slightly buzzed. The red wines include the flagship Tresor, always a blend of their finest lots of Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Merlot. Tel. (800) 831-0381