Recipe: Sungold Tomato & Bread Salad

photo courtesy of Sherry Page

Enjoy this easy to make and delicious recipe for Sungold Tomato and Bread Salad from Sherry Page of Culinary Getaways. Summer on a plate!

Sherry: “This is one of my favorite summer salad recipes. It combines sweet orange Sungold tomatoes and basil with spicy arugula. The sweet, tart and peppery flavors in this salad pair beautifully with a crisp, zesty Sauvignon Blanc. With it’s citrus and ripe stone fruit notes, Round Pond 2010 is one of my favorites!”  

PAIRING TIP: when you pair high-acid dishes, such as tomatoes, tomato sauce and acid-based salad dressings the wine should be at least as high in acid as the dish or the wine will taste flat. 

About Sherry: 

My good friend, Sherry Page, has been cooking since age five and has vivid memories of standing on a big, heavy chair at her Grandma’s stove, stirring away!

She’s, since, deepened and polished the cooking skills she gained as a child by taking cooking classes all over the world, including Raymond Blanc’s Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons near Oxford, Le Cordon Bleu in London, and culinary weeks with Patricia Wells in both Paris and Provence. She has also taken classes in Japan and Italy and has completed a number of professional wine classes at the Culinary Institute of America in St. Helena, Napa Valley.

Her day job? She’s the owner and very gracious host of Culinary Getaways, a travel company that focuses on introducing her guests to the riches of the Napa Valley, Paris, Provence and Tuscany through unique, carefully-crafted, food and wine experiences. 

I had the pleasure of going on her Provence getaway a few years ago, so I can attest, first hand, that she’s the hostess with the mostest! She makes it a point to know the special secrets that each region has to offer and the getaway is filled with exquisite tastings, intimate meals, really fun cooking classes and lots of laughter.

Sherry has generously agreed to share a special recipe and wine pairing with us from time to time. Enjoy, and bon appétit! Learn more about Sherry

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Sauvignon Blanc or Fumé Blanc?

Question from Pete: I heard that Sauvignon Blanc and Fumé Blanc are the same grape. Is that true? What’s the difference?

Reply: This comes up all the time. The grape variety is called Sauvignon Blanc. The name Fumé Blanc was dreamed up by Robert Mondavi to help him sell Sauvignon Blanc at a time when it was unpopular.

You have to go back to the 1960s, the when the groundwork was being laid for the second wine boom in California – the first was in the 1880s. In the sixties, very little Sauvignon Blanc was made. And what there was, was usually sweet and mediocre at best.

Robert Mondavi spent significant time in Bordeaux, Burgundy and other famous winegrowing regions in France to observe growing and winemaking techniques. While there, he was quite taken by the dry Sauvignon Blanc wines made in Bordeaux and the Loire Valley. He was sure he could sell a similar style at home if he wasn’t encumbered by the unpopular name, Sauvignon Blanc, and all the negative baggage that went with it.

In the Loire Valley, dry Sauvignon Blanc is sold under a variety of names such as Sancerre, Pouilly Fumé and Blanc Fumé. So, he took the name Blanc Fumé and flipped it around to come up with Fumé Blanc.

Sales took off. Never underestimate the power of marketing! He didn’t trademark the name and a number of other wineries adopted it. It’s not as commonly used these days, but you can still buy wine called Fumé Blanc from Grgich Hills, Chateau St. Jean, Ferrari-Carrano, Dry Creek, Hogue Cellars and others.

As it happens, most wineries that have adopted the name oak age their Fumé Blanc, just as Robert Mondavi Winery does. But there’s no regulation in that regard. The best thing to do if you’re shopping is to ask whether the wine is oaked or not so you know what you’re getting.

So, while Fumé Blanc isn’t a grape, it certainly is a wine – and a delicious one!

Send me your wine question

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