Wine of the week: Ferrari-Carano, 2021 Fumé Blanc, Sonoma County

Winemaker Natalie West grew up on a small vineyard in Healdsburg. While her childhood was filled with harvest celebrations, she also recalls the gritty vineyard work — pruning and removing weak shoots.

“It gave me an understanding of the hard work that goes into every vine,” she said.

West is the associate winemaker behind our wine of the week winner — the Ferrari-Carano, 2021 Fumé Blanc, Sonoma County at $17. It’s an impressive fumé blanc that over-delivers and is layered with fruit. It has aromas and flavors of guava, pineapple and peach, coupled with mineral and Meyer lemon. Creamy in texture, it’s balanced, with a citrusy finish.

The house style West said she’s shooting for is refreshing with ripe tropical and citrus notes.

“We like to stay away from any greener notes — gooseberry, grass, bell pepper,” she explained.

Fumé blanc, which is produced from the sauvignon blanc grape, is a style that suggests the grapes have had contact with oak barrels during or after fermentation.

“We call our wine fumé blanc because 30% of it is barrel-fermented in neutral French oak barrels,” West said. “This process does not give toasty oak characters to the wine (caramel, vanilla, etc.). Instead, barrel fermenting our sauvignon blanc gives the wine a creamy texture and more mouthfeel, adding a layer of complexity to the remaining 70% of the blend that is stainless-steel-tank-fermented.”

While barrel fermentations are labor-intensive and time-consuming, the associate winemaker said, they give the fumé blanc nuanced flavors.

West, 42, graduated from UC Davis in 2003 with a bachelor of science degree in viticulture and enology. She has worked at wineries in New Zealand and in California: the Central Coast, Dry Creek and Russian River valleys. Hired as an enologist, West joined Healdsburg’s Ferrari-Carano 13 years ago and today oversees the white wine production.

Founded in 1981 by Rhonda Carano and the late Don Carano, the enterprise began with a 30-acre vineyard in the late 1970s. Bill and Carol Foley of Foley Family Wines bought the winery in 2020.

The winery’s hospitality center is called Villa Fiore, Italian for “house of flowers.” It’s an extravagant Mediterranean palace with 5 acres of gardens which, in the spring, trumpet thousands of tulips. The terraces, with views of several fountains on the grounds, have an ambiance of Tuscany.

And the winery has recently added ways for wine lovers to enjoy the property even more.

“We’ve expanded our experiences beyond the traditional tastings with many outdoor and food options,” West said. “It allows guests to spread out and really enjoy the property.”

Wine writer Peg Melnik can be reached at peg.melnik@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5310.