Home Cellar: A trio of whites, four reds to buy and drink or buy and save

The beautifully balanced Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc 2003 offers the heady New Zealand style without being overwhelmingly grassy; there is a grassy-leafy element, but it's subdued to lemon-lime and limestone qualities and a touch of currant and bubble gum, all wrapped in a talc-like texture. Delightful. About $16.

Wow, the incredibly zesty and lively St. Supery Sauvignon Blanc 2002, Napa Valley, teems with peach and gooseberry scents touched with thyme and tarragon; it's crisp and dry in the mouth, an irresistible weaving of citrus and currants, dried herbs, dusty weeds and mown grass. It is, in fact, made more in the pungent New Zealand fashion than the previous wine. Terrifically refreshing. About $16.

Now we move into elegance. The Pascal Jolivet Sancerre 2002, from the eastern reaches of France's Loire Valley, starts with clean, fresh scents of damp leaves, grass, thyme and licorice and lemon-lime fruit; it displays beguiling weight and texture, delicious lemon, green apple and currant flavors and crisp acidity that marries with a slightly austere stony element. Excellent. About $20.

Now the merlots, all powerful expressions of the grape.

The exuberant Water brook Merlot 1999, Red Mountain, Columbia Valley, has tremendous portions of smoke, bittersweet chocolate and brambles contend with concentrated, roast ed and fleshy cassis and black raspberry flavors couched in grainy, minerally tannins. Nobody told this winery that merlot is supposed to be for wimps. Could age two or three years. About $20.

The William Hill Merlot 2000, Napa Valley, is a wine of a different stripe. Rich and succulent, balanced and integrated, it features an extraordinarily ripe, smoky, floral bouquet that leads to marvelous depths of blueberry, raspberry and plum flavors soaked in smoke and lavender, spice and chocolate. The personification of elegance and power. About $21.

Looking at my notes for the Ledson Merlot 1999, Sonoma Valley, I misread "minerals" as "animals." Both words are appropriate for this brawny, glittering wine that's almost strenuously fruity -- seething with macerated and smoky plum and currant flavors - and muscular, all wound around a core of spice, violets and underbrush. Give it three or four years. About $36.

Last of these four is the Niebaum-Coppola Merlot 2000, Rutherford, Napa Valley, a wine so generous and expansive, so warm and enticing with classic touches of cedar and tobacco, black olive and dried thyme infusing cassis and black raspberry flavors that its ballooning tide of iron-like minerals and barky tannins comes as a surprise. The strong of heart may drink now, but the wise will savor its enormous potential in four to six years. About $44.

Fredric Koeppel writes about wine for The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn.