A French Sauvignon Blanc We Should Be Drinking More Often

Fifty years ago, Pouilly-Fumé was so famous and sought-after that American wine trailblazer Robert Mondavi co-opted part of its name for his own (California) Sauvignon Blanc. The Robert Mondavi Fumé Blanc was wildly successful and inspired numerous domestic wineries to follow suit. But by the 1980s French Fumé began to languish as Sancerre started to soar.

The soils of Pouilly-Fumé and Sancerre are fairly similar: Both are based on limestone and clay, and the wines grown in the two places are often said to taste fairly similar, too. As Jancis Robinson and Hugh Johnson noted in the 8th edition of “The World Atlas of Wine,” “It would be a brave taster who maintained he or she could always tell a Pouilly-Fumé from a Sancerre. The best of each are on the same level….”

Since the two wines are admittedly so much alike, I wondered: Why did one take the world by storm while the other pretty much fell off the map? And are the Pouilly-Fumés findable in U.S. wine stores today actually worth the search?

I posed the first question to winemaker Karine Lauverjat, who makes very good Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé as well as a few other wines with her husband, Christian Lauverjat, in their Sancerre-based winery. “There was a huge media promotion on Sancerre, and now it’s a ‘do not miss’ place to visit with its hillside plateau, historic town center and beautiful views,” she wrote in an email. “You could even say that Sancerre has become the most popular town of France.”

Having visited the town of Sancerre—as well as Saint-Andelain and Pouilly-sur-Loire within the appellation of Pouilly-Fumé—I can attest that Sancerre is a postcard-perfect hilltop town while the other two are mere modest villages. And the Sancerre appellation is more than twice the size of Pouilly-Fumé in terms of vineyard acreage.

In addition to white Sancerre made from Sauvignon Blanc there are rosé and red Sancerres made from Pinot Noir. There is simply much more Sancerre to choose from. And many Pouilly-Fumé producers also produce Sancerre.

Pouilly-Fumé producer Loïc Caïlbourdin, of Domaine Cailbourdin, allowed that the two wines might be confused. “It’s the same grape variety and the same soils,” he wrote in an email. “We can find two types of wines in Pouilly-Fumé and Sancerre. One with typical aromas to Sauvignon (more in Sancerre) and one with aromas from terroirs.” (“Fumé,” French for “smoked,” refers to the wine’s trademark smoky note.) Mr. Caïlbourdin cast a bit of shade on Sancerre: “The average level of quality is surely higher in Pouilly-Fumé [and this wine] remains more reasonable on prices than Sancerre, which has raised its rates a lot without it being justified for many.”

I’ve had my share of mediocre Sancerres, often by the glass at restaurants where the markup was exponentially high. Josh Nadel, beverage director of the New York-based NoHo Hospitality Group, once told me restaurants could charge just about anything for Sancerre, a wine he called “bulletproof.”

Does the fact that Sancerre is home to several world-famous names (Cotat, Bourgeois, Vacheron, Mellot) while Pouilly-Fumé has only one (Dagueneau) have an effect on wine buyers? Mr. Nadel didn’t think so. In his view, Pouilly-Fumé had its moment on the world stage in a very different era. “There was far less competition in quality, importing, availability and information sharing,” wrote Mr. Nadel. He offered a long list of alternatives that appear on wine lists today, including Sancerre, of course, as well as other French Sauvignons, Chablis, Chenin Blanc and Spanish Albariño.

Complicating matters further, Pouilly-Fumé is often confused with Pouilly-Fuissé, a white Burgundy made from Chardonnay. Sometimes even retailers make this mistake. For instance, when the Wine Library, a large New Jersey wine shop, featured the 2020 Domaine Raimbault-Pineau Pouilly-Fumé ($29) on its website recently, the wine was described as a Chardonnay from France. (When I pointed out the error, a Wine Library staffer promptly fixed it.)

I did manage to track down nine actual Pouilly-Fumés, seven of which I thought were quite good. Two were made by Pascal Jolivet, one of the best-known names in Pouilly-Fumé and Sancerre: the 2019 Pascal Jolivet Les Franches Pouilly-Fumé ($30) and the 2018 Pascal Jolivet Blanc-Fumé ($25).

The 2019 Régis Minet Vieilles Vignes Pouilly Fumé ($25) was even better—crisp, mineral, precise—an outstanding expression of Sauvignon Blanc chosen specifically for the American market according to Anthony Lynch, son of the famed importer Kermit Lynch. The elegant 2019 Domaine A. Cailbourdin Les Cris Pouilly-Fumé ($23), was intensely mineral with a pleasingly saline finish, while the 2019 Francis Blanchet Cuvee Silice Pouilly Fumé ($20) was a bit lighter in body with crisp citrus and slightly smoky notes.

The light- to medium-bodied 2019 Karine Lauverjat Pouilly-Fumé ($20) was an excellent buy, also crisp with citrus notes. At the opposite end of the scale, the smoky 2018 de Ladoucette Pouilly-Fumé ($42) was big, rich and rather oaky.

It wasn’t easy to track down most of these wines, but the search was certainly worthwhile. As one who appreciates a good Sauvignon Blanc as well as an occasional trip back in time, I was glad to find some Pouilly-Fumé producers still making good wine.

OENOFILE / Pouilly-Fumés Worth Remembering

1. 2019 Régis Minet Vieilles Vignes Pouilly Fumé $25

This wine is a custom blend chosen for the American market by Berkeley, Calif.-based importer Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant. It’s beautifully balanced, very crisp and precise—almost Chablis-like.

2. 2019 Domaine A. Cailbourdin Les Cris Pouilly-Fumé $23

Produced from 20- to 35-year-old vines on limestone soils by one of the region’s top producers, this is a terrifically zesty, mineral, stainless-steel-fermented Sauvignon with a pleasingly saline note on the finish.

3. 2018 de Ladoucette Pouilly-Fumé $42

The de Ladoucette name is one of the most famous in Pouilly-Fumé, though this producer’s wines are a bit harder to find today than in decades past. The style is big and rich with aromas that tip into the tropical.

4. 2019 Karine Lauverjat Pouilly-Fumé $20

This is a pretty straightforward Sauvignon Blanc: light- to medium-bodied with a pleasing citrus note. This wine may lack complexity, but it possesses great drinkability. A Fumé for a hot summer night.

5. 2019 Francis Blanchet Cuvee Silice Pouilly Fumé $20

For those longing for the good old days of Pouilly-Fumé, the old-fashioned typeface of this label is a trip back in time. The wine is fully modern, however: crisp, fairly light-bodied, with notes of citrus and flint.

Write to Lettie at wine@wsj.com

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