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It just dawned on me that over the many years I have been writing about wine, I’ve never written a column specifically about one of the world’s most beloved grapes — sauvignon blanc.

New Zealand producers like Kim Crawford (who alone sells 1.6 million cases annually) and Oyster Bay literally sell boatloads of the wine every year around the world, in part because those wines are inexpensive, but they offer some sort of flavour profile that obviously has mass appeal. The New Zealand style comes across as highly aromatic with a palate that includes gooseberries, green apple, lime, cut grass and herbs. The aroma has been described as cat’s pee on a gooseberry bush, but it’s not as bad as it sounds on paper. While this style dominates the landscape in New Zealand, there are wineries, such as Pegasus Bay and Clos St. Henri, whose wines walk the line between the classic NZ profile and those of the Loire Valley, the ancestral home of the grape.

In the Loire Valley, the style is mineral-driven, flinty and occasionally a little smoky (in a good way, not a forest fire way), with racy acidity. Two famous appellations, Sancerre and Pouilly Fumé, define the Loire style, and the wines will typically run you somewhere between $40 and $100 a bottle. The two regions share a small border, with Sancerre regarded as the more prestigious of the two and, as such, pricier. Sancerre tends to deliver a little more intensity, but fashion and branding also come into play. In markets like the U.S., consumers gravitated towards Sancerre simply because they found it easier to pronounce.

The wines are typically unoaked, although one producer, Didier Dagueneau — who now inhabits the world of legend since his untimely death in 2008 — broke the mould. He converted his vineyards to biodynamic viticulture, employing oak aging and low yields, and he was driven by a fierce determination to produce the best sauvignon blanc in the world. The former motorcycle racer had no formal wine training and became known as the “wild man” of the Loire Valley.

The first time I tasted his wines, they were a revelation, capturing the racy characteristics of Pouilly Fumé but with a richness and opulence that I had never tasted in a Loire wine (outside of the other Loire grape, chenin blanc, but that’s another story). They clearly were built to improve with time in the cellar, whereas conventional wisdom with Loire sauvignon blanc dictates to drink them while they are young and fresh. He died after crashing his ultralight plane while buzzing around the Cognac region, leaving his son and daughter to continue his legacy. I brought his wines into a wine shop I once managed, but they have become hard to find and considerably more expensive since those long-gone days. His cousin’s wines, from Serge Dagueneau, are available in our market and are very good but more traditional in style.

If Didier Dagueneau’s style of winemaking was influenced by any one region, it was likely Bordeaux, where sauvignon blanc is traditionally blended with semillon (and sometimes a little muscadelle) to produce crisp, rich dry whites, along with the world’s most famous sweet wine, Sauternes. The latter is famously affected by botrytis cinerea, a.k.a. noble rot, a fungus that can cause partial raisining within the grape clusters, concentrating sugars and delivering a distinct flavour profile that includes stone fruits, quince, raisin, and honey, while retaining high levels of acidity to tie everything together. They are among the longest-lived wines on the planet, as was evident at a tasting of Chateau d’Yquem (the world’s most expensive and collectable sweet wine), hosted by the Post Hotel many years ago, where 35 vintages were presented. The oldest, from 1893, was still drinkable, and only Port and Madeira, both fortified wines, can boast this sort of longevity.

Many of the Sauternes producers are now making dry wines as well, since the market for Sauternes remains relatively small. In Bordeaux, you rarely see sauvignon blanc bottled without the inclusion of semillon. The latter contributes body and longevity, lending texture to wine, and setting it apart from the Loire Valley profile. A 750 ml bottle of Chateau d’ Yquem will now run you about $800 (and much, much more for older vintages), but you can find excellent dry wines from Bordeaux, such as Chateau d’Arche, for about $35, a great bargain for a wine of this calibre. If you want more opulence, try the dry wine from Chateau Rieussec (d’Yquem’s next-door neighbour), R de Rieussec, at about $65.

Chile has proven to be a good source for well-made, affordable sauvignon blanc, especially from regions like the Elqui Valley, Leyda, and Casablanca, most of which fall into the $20 to $30 range. Cheers!

Geoff Last is a long-time Calgary wine merchant, writer, instructor and broadcaster. He can be heard every Friday on CJSW’s Road Pops program from 4 to 6 p.m. lastcallforwine@gmail.com