I PLANTED a small row of Sauvignon Blanc vines 20 years ago – at the bottom of our garden beside our little cottage in South West France.

Our visits are tied to school holidays, which means the grapes are never fully ripe by the time we have to head back to Tyneside at the end of August. But 2011 was an exception.

I suspect they would have been even better with another 10 days on the vine, but my carefully tended grapes were flavourful and sweet, so I picked enough to fill a washing-up bowl and, after scrubbing by feet, trod enough juice to make my own version of the local aperitif – a blend of freshly-pressed juice with cognac. It’s almost good enough to drink.

I think I know a thing or two about Sauvignon Blanc but, a few weeks ago, I was presented with three glasses of it and I failed to guess what they were. My mistake has not caused me too many sleepless nights, but it made me realise I’ve still got a lot to learn. Even Sauvignon Blanc can still spring a few surprises.

These days, benchmark Sauvignon Blanc comes from the Marlborough region of South Island, New Zealand.

2011, not the easiest of years for the wine growers there, brought a bumper crop: good news for producers and consumers alike. Demand for New Zealand wine, and especially for Sauvignon Blanc, shows no sign of slowing down, even in these days of gloomy economic predictions. Our supermarkets are awash with decent examples that cost little more than a fiver, but a few slightly more expensive wines show just how well the Kiwis now understand Sauvignon.

I’ve just tasted four fabulous wines from Villa Maria that prove the point perfectly. The differences between them are subtle but fascinating.

Two are from single vineyards; the other two are a selection of the best fruit from a number of sites. The trend towards bottling wine from a single place is gaining ground in the New World. It has long been the case in Europe that the best wines are sold in this way, where producers feel that the special characteristics of climate and site make wines that are so distinctive it would be a shame to dilute them with wine from other vineyards.

The downside to this way of selling wine can be the loss of the simple clarity that comes from a wine bottled just by the name of the grape variety it’s made from. In France, this can be taken to extremes: the name of the vineyard or village that the wine comes from often takes over the label entirely and the poor consumer has no idea what it will be like unless they have an encyclopaedic knowledge of wine. You simply have to know that a white wine from Sancerre, Reuilly, Menetou-Salon or Pouilly Fumé, to name but a few, will be Sauvignon Blanc, because the label almost certainly won’t tell you. And there are easy traps to fall into, like Pouilly-Fuissé, which is Chardonnay. Tricky, isn’t it? It’s good, then, to see that Villa Maria have had the sense to headline Sauvignon Blanc on these special bottles. They are also clearly labelled either Reserve or Single Vineyard – everything is there to reassure the hesitant customer that they’re really getting what they want, yet there’s enough information to satisfy the enthusiast who wants to discover the intriguing differences that wine from special vineyards can offer. Villa Maria Reserve Wairau Valley Sauvignon Blanc 2011 (£13.99 at Majestic) has deliciously fresh gooseberry, grapefruit, lemon, peach and tomato stalk aromas, and a tangy, gooseberry and peach taste.

Villa Maria Clifford Bay Reserve Sauvignon Blanc (£13.99 at Sainsbury’s) is greener-tasting and more salty, with hints of green apple and green tomato and garden herbs. It’s quite grassy too.