Oakiness and Sauvignon Blanc questions

[Marti]

Hi guys,

Very new to wine...have been at the forums in the past trying to get info--has been very helpful.

Wondering how you know when a particular wine is "oakey" or not...(besides buying it and tasting it--what if you don't know what oakey is supposed to taste like)??? I have not developed a way to tell if a wine is "oakey" or not and I wish the bottles would advertise "unoaked" or "oaked" so that I could say to myself "okay, this is what oakey is because it says 'oaked'".

Second question: my favorite wine (so far anyway) is Sauvignon Blancs (I do not like reds except zinfandels for some reason). Why do the New Zealand and Californian Sauvignon Blancs taste so different? I am relatively poor, so I cannot spend more than $20 or so US dollars on a bottle, but even considering this, I've wasted up to about 20 bucks on a Californian S.B that were sweet and completely different than what I expected! Ick! I usually am always gratified with a New Zealand S.B. like Redbank or Geisen. I'm wondering why this is? ?

Well, since I brought it up, have any of you had the Redbank S.B? It is my absolute favorite but only $13 U. S./bottle. Is it possible to have a good wine at such a relatively low price?

Thank you in advance for the help. I know I will get good information and further my wine afficionado-ness...... hee-hee.

Marti