Savor sauvignon blanc at bargain prices

Sauvignon blanc is the most versatile white wine for pairings with food. It goes well with most fish and chicken dishes because of its ability to clean the palate for the next bite.

Flavors of sauvignon blanc range widely, from grapefruit and citrus to grass and minerals. If you don't like the taste of one, you should not assume that all sauvignon blancs taste that way.

I asked the wine tasters to compare five sauvignon blancs ranging in price from $10 to $20 --meaning that some wines could cost twice as much as others. Because we always pour our tasting glasses with the bottles wrapped in sacks, my experts could not know which was the most or least expensive. Here is what we found:

- 2002 Tuatara Sauvignon Blanc at $14.99. This wine offered aromas of hay, minerals and a fruity sweetness. We tasted tropical fruit, especially canned pineapples. This wine was not as dry as most of the others. The Tuatara finished second in our tasting.

- 2002 Vavasour Sauvignon Blanc at $18.99. As opposed to fruit, this wine's aroma reminded us of cut grass, canned asparagus and tomato vines. In the mouth, we tasted the oil of a grapefruit peel. The wine had good acids, but it was not as well-balanced nor as tart or crisp as the others.

- 2002 Goldwater Dog Point Sauvignon Blanc at $19.99. This wine from the Marlborough Valley showed aromas of green apples and sour weeds. In the mouth, it was fairly nondescript. My tasters found it to be out of balance, with more acids than fruit.

- 2002 Lake Chalice Sauvignon Blanc at $17.99. The bottle brought to our tasting was bad. A tasting of a second bottle later revealed an aroma was full of grapefruit and unripe pears and was slightly stemmy. (Stemmy is winespeak for wine that smells or tastes a bit green because the grape juice was in considerable contact with stems of the vines.) In the mouth it was extremely dry, probably the driest of the five, with flavors of citrus and subtle hints of pear and pineapple. It would make an excellent wine when paired with food.

- 2002 Blind River Sauvignon Blanc at $9.99. This wine's aroma was full of grapefruit, lemon and grass. On the palate, we discovered a lot of fruit, including lemon zest and some lime. The wine was juicy in the mouth, with nice acids and had a pleasing, tart finish. The Blind River, the least expensive of the five, finished first in the tasting.

Surfing the wine shelves:

- 2002 Niebaum-Coppola Blancaneaux at $30. This wine, a blend of Marsanne, chardonnay, roussanne and viognier, had an aroma of pear and apple. Flavors of these fruits layered with tastes of apricot and ginger followed in the mouth of this full-bodied wine.

- 2002 Napa Creek Chardonnay at $11.99. Pleasing notes of pear and melon in the aroma were followed by flavors of vanilla, butterscotch and toasty oak on the palate.

- Nonvintage Wolf Blass Brut at $10. A nice sparkling wine with floral and fresh fruit scents, it had a medium body with crisp tastes of apple and citrus.

Questions can be sent to Frank Sutherland, editor, The Tennessean, 1100 Broadway, Nashville, TN 37203, or e-mailed to editor