While grape growers in the northern hemisphere are just winding down harvest, the southern hemisphere is six months ahead of us. It seems we should still be drinking our 2005's, 06's, and 07,s, but I've just opened a bottle of the 2008 Veramonte Sauvignon Blanc Reserva, a gorgeously fresh and lively wine from Chile's Casablanca Valley.

Ordinarily I think of Sauvignon Blanc as a summer wine because its bone-dry acidity and grapefruit flavors zing through your palate and refresh a thirsty mouth like no other wine can. But dry, unoaked varietal Sauv Blancs are mostly meant to be drunk young in order to stay fresh--so the younger, the better, and when the southern hemisphere 2008s roll out in the fall, it's best to catch them while you can.

Many producers in New Zealand and Chile use a new harvesting method of picking grapes over a longer period of time at different levels of ripeness, which gives the wine a heady combination of raciness and curves. Pick too soon, and Sauvignon Blanc, already a vegetal varietal, is too green, too grassy. Pick to late, and the wine is flabby and flat instead of full and round. The combination picking results in a multi-dimensional wine that has the best of both worlds: flinty minerality and ripe body.

Add this method to the fact that Chile produces some of the world's best value wines, and you have a recipe for goodness in these strange economic times. I've always liked the Veramonte brand, which is widely available in the U.S. and a good value. This year's reviews aren't out yet, but it's generally gotten good scores from the critics in the past.

As it turns out, Sauvignon Blanc isn't such a bad fall wine after all. I made a simple pasta dish from Everyday Food called Rigatoni with Roasted Pumpkin and Goat Cheese last night, and the wine was a perfect match, cutting the creamy sweetness of the squash and acting as partner to the tangy goat cheese.

When I have friends over to taste wine, they like most of what I pour their way. But Sauvignon Blanc seems to be like cilantro--you either love it or you hate it. Which are you?