Wine: Sauvignon and on

Among today's growing range of dry white wines, sauvignon blanc is so likeable because it's one of those "does what it says on the tin" (or in this case, the label) wines. It's unpretentious, it refreshes, it puts a smile on your face and rarely hits you in the pocket. Once a puny creature that had trouble getting the girl, sauvignon has taken great delight in kicking the sand in to chardonnay's face as it has grown in stature. And it's not just a ladies-who-lunch white. While it may not have quite the range of chardonnay when it comes to food, it'll do as a dry white, drunk on its own, and chime with a broad enough spectrum of dishes - scallops and whitebait to mention just a couple - to make it a fully paid-up member of the wine-list union.

Until Cloudy Bay came along, sauvignon ruled the Loire Valley's two great sauvignon blanc roosts of Sancerre and Pouilly Fumé. Both are still capable of the type of gunflint-crisp minerality which made these two names the sine qua non of the restaurant list - like the intense, bone dry 2005 Sancerre Roc de l'Abbaye, £12.49, Oddbins, or the superbly juicy 2005 Taste the Difference Pouilly Fumé, £9.49, Sainsbury's. The French, as proponents of terroir-sur-tout (roughly translated as location, location, location), could never find it in themselves to give the grape itself the credit it deserved, so when Cloudy Bay burst on to the scene in 1985, it caused a sensation (admittedly in part for its haunting label). Sauvignon blanc was planted in New Zealand for the first time in 1973 (by Montana) but Marlborough has changed the way we think about sauvignon blanc. Cloudy Bay has cleverly retained its cult status despite expanding to more than 50,000 cases. While it's still up there as one of New Zealand's best (the 2006 is back on form after a dip), it's no longer on its own.

The overall standard of Kiwi sauvignon has improved dramatically and the 2006 vintage is confirmation of this with a number of cracking examples. The 2006 Blind River Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, £9.99, Oddbins, typifies the assertive Marlborough style with an elderflower pungency followed by delicate, passion-fruit richness and crisp acidity. A more recent incarnation, the 2006 Eradus Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, £9.99, Corney & Barrow (020-7221 5122), is a great success in this vintage, a glossy, pungent dry white that balances classic gooseberry and tropical fruit flavours with restrained richness and grapefruit acidity. More restrained but no less classy, the 2006 Astrolabe Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, around £13.50, Harrods, The Cellar Door, Hampshire (01256 770397), is aromatic and nettley with gooseberry fruit in a Marlborough-meets-Sancerre style.

New Zealand is the inspiration behind the phenomenal growth of New World sauvignon blanc. South Africa's sauvignon is the fastest growing premium white in the Cape winelands, with numerous cool spots now identified as classic locations for sauvignon blanc. Among the best is Steenberg in Constantia, whose 2006 Darracott Sauvignon Blanc, £8.99, Marks & Spencer, shows classic fresh green-bean aromas, with a squeeze of lemony acidity. Bamboes Bay, a cool climate by the Atlantic, is home to one of the Cape's best examples, the capsicum-rich 2006 Fryer's Cove Sauvignon Blanc, £127.93 a case including delivery, Anthony Bryne Fine Wines Ltd (01487 814555). And Chile? Perhaps the best-value country for sauvignon today with fine examples in the mouthwatering 2006 Pirque Estate Sauvignon Blanc, £6.99, Marks & Spencer, and the 2006 Cono Sur Reserve Sauvignon Blanc, £6.99, Morrisons, both doing precisely what they say on the label.

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