One of the world's most intriguing wine stories of the last quarter-century has to be the astonishingly rapid rise onto the world stage of New Zealand sauvignon blanc.

In fact, about 25 years ago it would have been next to impossible to find a single bottle of that wine in a United States fine wine shop. Today we can find several different versions in grocery stores around the world and it's widely available in restaurants. Literally dozens of Kiwi wineries now export to the United States.

Sauvignon blanc is, of course, a world-class grape variety, made most famous in Europe for the way it grows and produces exceptionally interesting wines in the eastern Loire Valley of France. It also produces excellent wines in California's Sonoma County and recently has become a secondary star to cabernet in Napa Valley.

However, it got a belated start here as a fine wine. Its assertive herbal nature in the 1980s often gave it a forceful vegetal note, which some people disparaged by saying that most California sauvignon blancs were "weedy" or "stemmy."

Whether that criticism was warranted is questionable, especially on a case-by-case basis. But New Zealand is a special place and many creative winemakers in the 1990s figured out how to stylistically craft this grape into a succulent and appealing wine.

The best examples of New Zealand sauvignon blanc come from Marlborough, which is a flat, windswept plain located on the South Island, at the northern tip. It's a windy region that receives strong ocean breezes from both east and west coasts.

Marlborough, on the east, is just off the South Pacific and it is only a two-hour drive from there to the Tasman Sea on the west. The drive is through the spectacular Southern Alps!

The breezes that race through the area as well as the cold temperatures keep the acids in the sauvignon blanc high, so to make the wines better balanced and less like off-season grapefruits, most producers leave a tiny bit of sugar in the wines. This makes them perfect for drinking when young.

But after three or four years, they lose some of their vibrancy. Some wine lovers appreciate how sauvignon blanc ages, and they like to try five- and six-year-old examples, but most consumers prefer the wines when they're young and flamboyantly fruity.

Because New Zealand is located in the southern hemisphere, grapes are harvested six months earlier than we harvest here, about March, so a current vintage for U.S. sauvignon blanc wines is 2021, but we have already begun to see the first releases from 2022 from Southern Hemisphere wineries, including some excellent examples from Chile.

For maximum enjoyment within the next few months to a year, try a New Zealand sauvignon blanc from 2022 or 2021. Anything from 2020 or earlier will have slightly less of the youthful grapefruit, lime or kiwifruit aromas that the younger wines will have.

Excellent wines to look for are Allan Scott, Nautilus, Spy Valley, Astrolabe, Villa Maria, Stoneleigh, Matua Valley and Brancott Estate.

This last brand is from the wine company called Montana in New Zealand. It is the largest winery in NZ, and its wines here are called Brancott Estate. This company also makes a lower-alcohol version of its Marlborough sauvignon called Flight Song, which is excellent and has only 9% alcohol.

Almost all of the above wines are available at about $20 or less. If you find any 2022 sauvignon blancs from NZ, there's no risk in buying several bottles. They'll be fine for drinking over the next two years without any deterioration.

Wine of the Week: 2021 Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc, Marlborough ($15) — This widely available version of NZ SB has the expected citrusy notes and crisp entry, but just enough balance of richness and softness to pair with Asian foods and seafood.

To find out more about Sonoma County resident Dan Berger and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.

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