My first wine of 2024 is an aged Fumé Blanc (is because there’s still a bit in the bottle). One of the wonderful things about being interested in wine for a couple of decades is that I now have a rather good collection of aged wines. The thing with age though, is that you never know how a wine will be – it could be good, but it could just as easily be past its prime. In today’s case it has aged beautifully and is titillating my senses. It’s a 2008 from Taltarni and presents a very strong argument for more Fumé Blanc in our glasses. 

Fumé Blanc (which translates as ‘smoked white’) is a Sauvignon Blanc made in oak barrels. In France they call it Pouilly-Fumé and it comes from the Loire Valley. There was loads of it Australia in the 1980s but then everyone got scared of oak and wanted acid, so it all but disappeared. It’s starting to make a comeback, and as a someone who likes a wine that goes well with food, that makes me happy.

This little gem is doing everything an aged white should do – it’s a gorgeous golden straw colour (as you can see in the photo), it has a delightfully aged nose, but not so much that it’s got the kero edge of an aged Riesling. The oak is giving it a creamy mouthfeel, and it tastes like buttered almonds, with citrus peel and stewed peaches. It tastes like sitting on a stone wall on a warm summer’s day, looking out over rolling hills. If it weren’t so stormy and wet today I’d go and find myself a wall to sip it on!