NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — “Sauvignon blanc is the perfect wine,” says John Ash, a California wine country chef and cookbook author. “Every food is improved by a squeeze of lemon. And that’s what this lively wine brings to the table.”No longer chardonnay’s weak sister, sauvignon blanc has become a powerhouse, with growing sales and chic new status as a vino blanco of choice in top restaurants. Quality is at an all-time high.

Winemakers in a half-dozen countries have figured out how to showcase the wine’s bright, refreshing acidity, savoury flavour and whistle-clean finish. Those qualities are the keys to its amazing compatibility with foods such as oysters, fusion cuisine, Thai curry, chicken, pork, salads, goat cheese, tomatoes — and fish of all types, served in any style. The one choice on a restaurant wine list most likely to make a food match, sauvignon blanc is my no-fail, no-brainer, go-to glass.

Ash has so much enthusiasm for the grape that several years ago he joined with three partners to start Sauvignon Republic Cellars, which produces sauvignon blanc in three wine regions around the globe. Winemaker John Buechsenstein jets regularly from Sonoma County’s Russian River Valley to New Zealand’s Marlborough to South Africa’s Stellenbosch. This year, the winery will add another bottling, from Italy’s Friuli region; next up, one from France. Each wine has distinctive flavour and style; all embrace the fruity side of sauvignon blanc, which Ash thinks has the most appeal.

Not surprisingly, Wine & Spirits magazine’s 18th annual restaurant poll shows sauvignon blanc increasing in popularity at high-end US restaurants such as New York’s Cafe Gray and Los Angeles’s Hotel Bel-Air.

“Crisp whites are gaining,” publisher Joshua Greene says. “In our first poll in 1989, chardonnay accounted for 44 percent of wine sales; this year, that percentage was 14.8.”

In 2006, sales of $10-and-up sauvignon blancs climbed 22 percent from 2005, according to a report from Information Resources Inc., an independent company that tracks retail sales. Unlike today’s other trendy white, pinot grigio, most of which has about as much flavour interest as box wine, sauvignon blanc shouts its personality. The quality-to-price ratio is part of the appeal; most sell for less than $20.

The grape is now grown in just about every wine country on the planet, including India, at least in part because the wine is inexpensive to produce. The quick turnaround from harvest to bottle to marketplace makes for good cash flow.

The most stylish bottles, though, always come from areas with very cool growing conditions that preserve the grapes’ acidity, which results in the aromatic, crisp character sauvignon blanc is known for. Too much sun and heat, and the wines taste dull and flat.

Today, the top sources are France (the grape’s original home), New Zealand (which kick-started sauvignon blanc’s revitalisation 20 years ago with a high-voltage, zingy style) and California, which has finally abandoned its clunky, chardonnay-wannabe approach for full flavours and edginess. South Africa, Italy, Austria, Chile and Australia all have serious potential.

Mouthwatering acidity is the common thread, but the wines can range from simple to complex, light to full-bodied, racy to rich and no oak to barrel aged, with flavours from citrusy to tropical and exotic to grassy to flinty.

In France’s Loire Valley, the grape’s zingy fruit is balanced by strong mineral flavours, and the wines have more depth and complexity. Sancerre, the snappy Paris wine-bar staple, has become more reliably appealing as proprietors now wait to pick until grapes are riper.

Pouilly-Fume, which is made across the river, is richer, with a creamy texture and a smoky taste that’s often described as “gunflint”. The top producer is bushy-bearded perfectionist Didier Dagueneau, a motorcycle fanatic and dog-sled racer who has pushed his neighbours to create higher-quality wines. The 2005 vintage is rich and complex; the 2006, especially fruity.

In Bordeaux, sauvignon blanc is frequently blended with semillon and aged in oak; today’s wines have a lighter touch. The 2004 vintage, available this spring, is particularly good.

The Marlborough region of New Zealand carved out a new, intensely grassy-grapefruity taste profile that changed ideas about the grape, but many sauvignon blancs from that country seemed interchangeable. Winemakers are broadening that trademark tangy style by adding a bit of oak to some bottlings and turning to other regions, such as Martinborough, for slightly different flavour profiles.

Many California winemakers now try to retain more freshness and vibrant fruitiness by picking grapes at night and keeping wine in stainless steel instead of oak. And last fall’s weather helped them out. “2006 was one of the best vintages for California sauvignon blanc in the last six years,” Geyser Peak Winery’s Mick Schroeter says.