It’s easy to forget – nowhere more so than in New York – the astonishing scope of our wine choices. You walk into a good wine shop these days and are overwhelmed by the array.

Part of this array, one regrets to say, comes from knockoffs. We see far too many chardonnays that taste of little more than greed and oak. Ditto for cabernet sauvignon, merlot, and syrah. One winery or brand hits it big (think Yellow Tail) and hordes of others follow, hoping to capture the same lightning in their wine bottles.

So there’s no sense in Panglossing it over: this is not the best of all possible wine worlds. However, it very likely is the best wine world we’ve yet seen. Never have we had so many wines from so many places. Never has wine been more pure or more likely actually to come from the place specified on the label. It was not long ago that many wines were adulterated and fraudulently labeled. (This still goes on, by the way. South Africa just saw a scandal at one of its largest wineries, KWV, where winemakers were found to have added green-pepper extract to 73,000 bottles worth of sauvignon blanc from two vintages. The wines were destroyed.)

Still, our selection is vast. And our choices are, well, choice. The following wines prove the point admirably. They come from all over – more places, in fact, than the wine world even knew about as recently as a few decades ago. And the quality of each is superior today to anything these same places have ever previously offered. Indeed, each is good enough to, literally, take on the world.

HERE’S THE DEAL

UNTI VINEYARDS GRENACHE “DRY CREEK VALLEY” 2002

Want to be on the inside track when it comes to California wines? Then you can do no better than to try Unti Vineyards 2002 grenache. Located in narrow Dry Creek Valley of Sonoma County – famed for its zinfandel, but capable of more yet – the Unti family creates an exceptional grenache from a 2.9-acre block planted in 1998.

Far from presenting a drawback, such young vines actually offer an opportunity. You see, new (and better) clones of grenache have only recently become available in California, which really make a difference. Unti secured three different clones of grenache from Alban Vineyards – arguably California’s finest grenache producer – and Tablas Creek, which has supplied other California wineries with superior clones of various Rhone grapes as well as issuing its own fine wines.

Actually this wine extends beyond grenache as it is, in fact, a blend:75% grenache,13% syrah, and 12% mourvedre. All of these vines were recently planted, again benefiting from newly available clones or strains.

The result is striking. This is dense, supple red wine with an intense fragrance and taste of red currants and raspberries (that’s the grenache). Syrah gives it backbone, while the mourvedre adds a whiff of dustiness and a touch of tannin. One is grateful for the absence of apparent oak, the better for the fruit purity to shine through. This is outstanding Rhone-style red wine, the kind that can make you sit up and take notice. Not much is made (645 cases) but happily some does get to New York at not too much of a premium over the winery’s own price. $34.

DOG POINT VINEYARD “MARLBOROUGH” SAUVIGNON BLANC 2004

Nowhere in the world is the ascendance of fine wine more dramatic – astonishing even – than New Zealand. If you mentioned New Zealand wines 20 years ago you would have received a blank stare in response. Who knew? Yet today, New Zealand has 463 wineries (California has 1,049). District names such as Central Otago and Marlborough are now part of the vocabulary of wine lovers in many countries. Each is identified with a specialty: Central Otago is all about pinot noir; Marlborough specializes in sauvignon blanc.

Marlborough-grown sauvignon blanc originally rocketed to world fame with Cloudy Bay winery. Cloudy Bay’s zingy, citrus-inflected sauvignon blanc was many tasters’ introduction to New Zealand wine in general and the Marlborough district in particular.

Now, with 84 wineries, the Marlborough district is more than just Cloudy Bay. Indeed, perhaps the second-most famous wine name in the zone is Dog Point Vineyard, which began issuing wines under its own label only in 2002, although the vineyard itself was first planted in the 1970s. Dog Point’s winemaker is, in fact, Cloudy Bay’s former winemaker.

In short, everything aligns: a top vineyard allied to a talented, experienced winemaker. The results show in this brand-new, really fine sauvignon blanc. This is classic Marlborough-grown sauvignon blanc: crisp, oak-free, filled with delicate scents of lemon and tropical fruits such as guava. It also displays an extremely pale lime-green hue, which is lovely to look at. If you’re having crab, oysters, or simply prepared fish, this wine is absolutely the ticket. This is as good an ambassador to New Zealand sauvignon blanc as you’ll find. $20.

GOATS DO ROAM IN VILLAGES 2003, FAIRVIEW ESTATE

The phrase “fine South African wine” might well (and understandably) seem like an oxymoron. Although winegrowing there dates to the late 1600s, the fact is that the pursuit of truly fine wines in South Africa is very recent indeed.

Numerous structural reasons exist, nearly all of them related to the old apartheid government. Until the mid-1990s, South Africa couldn’t effectively engage with the outside world due to sanctions against apartheid. And the old government tightly controlled all winegrowing in the country, requiring all sales to be channeled through one state-owned winery (KWV). There were no outside markets – apartheid again – so the wines had only a provincial, uninformed local audience. What’s more, the government also required that all vineyard plantings be approved by KWV, which dictated which grapes could be grown. They wanted high-yield varieties for sweet bulk wines. Really, you couldn’t devise a more suffocating environment for fine wine.

All that changed with the election of Nelson Mandela as president in 1994. South Africa’s old wineries saw renewal and dozens, now hundreds, of new wineries mushroomed into existence. A lot of money, much of its foreign, has been sluiced into South African wineries, to say nothing of a renaissance of local ambition and pride.

Fairview was one of those old South African wineries, founded in 1693. It was bought by the Back family in 1937, which still owns it. Current owner Charles Back has a genius for marketing, exemplified by his now-notorious Goats Do Roam label. Fairview, you see, has a herd of 600 goats. And they do roam.

The French, however, object (quelle surprise). The French government wine agency, INAO, says that Goats Do Roam is too similar to the French appellation Cotes-du-Rhone and they want it put down, so to speak. There’s only one problem: the European Union accepted the Goats Do Roam trademark in 1999 even before the first bottles appeared on the market.

So now the French are trying to fight their case in America, using American trademark law. (They also don’t like another Fairview label, Goat Roti.) Fairview created a new label especially for the American market: Goats Do Roam In Villages. No prizes for guessing the French reaction. So far, however, they have not been able to prevent the release of the wine.

Anyway, what counts is the wine itself. And it does count. This is lovely red wine, a blend of seven grape varieties, “personally selected by the rampant Fairview goats,” according to the winery. The blend is informed by South Africa’s own red grape creation, pinotage (a cross between pinot noir and cinsault), along with syrah, grenache, carignan, and mourvedre, among others.

The resulting wine is soft, lush, fragrant, and utterly drinkable red wine. Many such blends come off as muddy and indeterminate. Goats Do Roam In Villages 2003, however, delivers focus and flavor delineation. This is an ideal, refreshing, easy-down-the-gullet red for the likes of pizza, pasta, steaks, or grilled sausages. It’s truly – dare I say surprisingly? – fine wine. And the price is unbeatable for the quality: $9.95 a bottle.