More often than not when ordering a white wine I go for a Sancerre or Pouilly-Fume, made from the sauvignon blanc grape in France’s Loire Valley. I find it as versatile as an aperitif as I do with a wide variety of foods to follow, and the price is usually right. What I almost never do is order a sauvignon blanc from America, where it is sometimes called fume blanc. All the virtues I find in French sauvignon blancs -- their aromatic bouquet, herbaceous, slightly grassy flavor, and lightness of structure -- are often squandered in California and Pacific Northwest wineries, which tend to overemphasize herbal notes, making most taste like a newly mown lawn with plenty of dandelions and a little fertilizer thrown in.