Wine Tips - Herding Cats and Fume Blanc

Greetings from Vintage Connections!

This week,we feature a South African blend and a California Fume Blanc. 

Also, see our Fun Fact at the bottom of the page.

Herding Cats 2008  (red) from the western cape of South Africa.  This blend of 80% Cabernet Sauvignon and 20% Shiraz is a deep dark red in color.  It has flavors of dark cherry, cassis, and pepper.  “Soft fine tannins give the wine an elegant and lingering finish.” (From Badger West Wine and Spirits, LLC).

We used this wine untested for our “Wines of the World” class and were happily surprised.  The balance between the rich Cabernet Sauvignon and the spicy Syrah made for a good tasting wine.  The finish lasted longer than we had expected.

There seems to be no information on the winery it comes from, so information about fermentation and aging is unavailable.

Alcohol is 13.5% by volume.  PLCB product code is 7058 and is available at most PA Wine and Spirit Stores for $9.99.

Robert Mondavi Fume Blanc from the Napa Valley, CA.   Robert Mondavi Fume` Blanc is made of barrel-aged 92% Sauvignon Blanc and 8% Semillon.   Fume Blanc has aromas of “lemongrass and lime blossoms and hints of sage and spice“, with flavors of  “crisp yellow peach”.  It has a slight minerality and a “zesty acidity” with a long finish.  It is light straw colored.

Fume Blanc was created by Robert Mondavi in 1966, when his Sauvignon Blanc wine sales plummeted.  Changing the name from Sauvignon Blanc to Fume Blanc caused sales to increase significantly.

Sixty-eight percent of the wine is fermented in French oak barrels.  The rest is fermented in stainless steel.  The entire batch is then aged for four months in French oak barrels.

Alcohol is 13.9% by volume.  PLCB product code is 8582 and sells for $17.99 at most PA Wine and Spirit Stores.

Up-coming Events

Check out Mothers' Day weekend events at PA wineries including Manatawny, Pinnacle Ridge, and other local wineries that are part of the Berks County Wine Trail and the Lehigh Valley Wine Trail.

Check out the Jazz coming to Pinnacle Ridge on May 16 and the
Summer Solstice Festival at Manatawny on June 19.

American Wine Society Educational Foundation Benefit Tasting
Saturday September 18  

Wine and Appetizer Pairing, Perkiomen Valley Library, Schwenksville
Time and cost TBD
See more about the Perkiomen Chapter of AWS.

Mom's House
Benefit Wine Dinner

Saturday, October 23

Five course dinner, each course paired with a different wine.  Kimberton Arts Center  6:30 PM, $75 per person or $525 for a table of 8.  For more information about Mom's House, click HERE

This week’s Fun Fact  -  From our winemaker friend Joe, “The Amazing Book of Useless Information,” and many other sources.

The "punt" in the bottom of sparking wine bottles adds strength so the bottle can withstand the pressure created by the fermentation in the bottle.  The punt has no practical purpose in still (non-sparkling) wines (some say it provides extra bottle strength for shipping and stacking cases of wine, but many wines are shipped and stacked without punts in the bottoms of their bottles).