Four easy ways to make your wine waiter's day

One of my favourite wine cartoons shows an obsequious sommelier serving at a table. 'An excellent choice, sir' he purrs, above the caption 'What wine waiters say'. Next to the first picture is another with a rather different caption, namely: 'What they think.' In this second drawing, the sommelier has his fingers down his throat.

Most sommeliers feel this way about Sancerre. Talk to any wine waiter about the Loire Valley's favourite white and his eyes will roll slowly towards the back of his head. 'Not another one,' he says to himself as the 10th punter of the night takes the restaurant business's equivalent of the path most trodden.

There's nothing wrong with Sancerre - indeed, in vintages such as 2002 and 2005, it can be one of France's most refreshing whites - but, like Italian Pinot Grigio, it tends to be chosen by people who have little or no imagination. That's why restaurants frequently overcharge for the stuff. Put Sancerre (or Chablis, another default option) on a label and you can get away with almost anything.

Things may be changing, however. New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, the original bungee jump into a gooseberry bush, has already made a big dent in sales of Sancerre in the high street. In restaurants, too, wines such as Cloudy Bay have become almost as popular as French Sauvignon Blancs and every bit as expensive. Incidentally, the moment you see Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc on a list at £45 is the moment to fake an urgent call on your mobile and head for the door.

These days there is a further threat to Sancerre's domination of restaurant wine lists. In the past five years, South Africa has become one of the world's most exciting Sauvignon Blanc producers. I don't want to be accused of hysteria here, but I think the Cape is already making a more diverse range of Sauvignons than New Zealand. Areas such as Elgin, Elim, Durbanville Hills, Darling and Constantia are producing wines that are every bit as good as the best Sancerres and Marlborough Sauvignons.

The top wines are no cheaper than their Kiwi equivalents, but they are as tasty. A year ago, there was a huge scandal when one of the Cape's largest producers was found guilty of adding green peppers to two of its Sauvignons. The irony was that if the KWV had sourced grapes from one of the new, cool-climate areas, its winemakers wouldn't have needed to cheat.

If you've always felt that Sauvignon Blanc runs the gamut of flavours from A to B (to paraphrase Dorothy Parker's description of Katharine Hepburn in a Broadway play), then try a few examples from the Cape. The best of them combine the finesse of Sancerre with the exuberant fruit of Kiwi Sauvignon. I've chosen four different styles for you to try this week.

The fresh, herbal 2005 Vergelegen Sauvignon Blanc, Western Cape (£7.99, Sainsbury's; Tesco) which combines grapes from Somerset West and Koekenaap on the West Coast, benefits from the addition of 10 per cent of lightly wooded Semillon. From cooler Constantia in the suburbs of Cape Town, the 2005 Darracott Sauvignon Blanc (£8.99, Marks & Spencer) is crisper and more delicate, although it too contains a little Semillon for good measure. If Constantia is the oldest wine-producing area in the Cape, Elim on the south coast is one of the newest. Bruce Jack's 2005 The Berrio Sauvignon Blanc (£9.99, Oddbins) is a tight, minerally white that ages brilliantly in bottle. At the opposite end of the climatic scale, sun-baked Robertson is the unlikely home of one of the best Cape Sauvignons. The 2005 Springfield Sauvignon Blanc (£8.99, Waitrose; Sainsbury's) is the best yet from Abrie Bruwer's eccentric winery. I'd rather serve this than most Sancerres and so, I suspect, would the majority of sommeliers. For once, they wouldn't have to put their fingers down their throats.