Robert Mondavi’s claims to fame were var­i­ous, but it is his cre­ation of the Fumé Blanc style of wine and deci­sion to place his epony­mous win­ery along­side one of California’s most cher­ished vine­yards, To Kalon, that con­firm his sta­tus as a bona fide leg­end of Amer­i­can wine­mak­ing. To vis­it the estate that he found­ed in 1966 is to walk through a part of his­to­ry. Before Robert Mon­davi came along, Cal­i­forn­ian Sauvi­gnon Blancs were most­ly sweet and not espe­cial­ly well regard­ed. Tak­ing inspi­ra­tion from those pro­duced in the Loire, where oak mat­u­ra­tion is com­mon­place, and the appel­la­tion of Pouil­­ly-Fumé specif­i­cal­ly, Mon­davi cre­at­ed a dry, rich­ly flavoured Sauvi­gnon Blanc aged in oak bar­rels that mar­ried Cal­i­forn­ian con­cen­tra­tion with French finesse. Smoky, some­times spicy, often creamy, the exact type and lev­el of oak influ­ence may dif­fer among pro­duc­ers today but the Fumé Blanc moniker is inter­na­tion­al­ly rec­og­nized, and where bet­ter to sam­ple it than the very place it was cre­at­ed, back in 1968, and from what are believed to be some of America’s old­est Sauvi­gnon Blanc vines in exis­tence?