If you want to step out and like some wines that are like the standards—such as chardonnay or cabernet sauvignon—I offer some suggestions. You can always go back to same old, same old. 

The destiny of this hefty text is as permanent resident on your wine reference shelf, alongside such indispensables as Robinson’s own editorship of “The Oxford Companion to Wine.”

Know that never before in the history of wine has more and better wine been made all over the globe. If you want the best wine for the best price, go for grape varieties that you’ve never heard of (often from places that you didn’t know made wine). Here’s a too-short list of white wine values, from the grape’s point of view.  

When a chardonnay is “unoaked” or “unwooded,” however, it stands naked in its bottle. Many winemakers choose to fashion such expressions of chardonnay, some by the traditions of their area, others with an eye to letting the grape simply strut its plainspoken stuff. Photo from Manuel Venturini on unsplash.

To bank on a skilled grower and maker of chardonnay, who works in a less well-known region of Burgundy, is to place, to my way of thinking, as safe a bet on white wine as there is. You just need to know whom to seek out and where to look. 

Rhone wines, 80 percent of which are red, long have been known for their strength and color. Their dramatic power is little equaled in French red wine. Photo from Brett Jordan on unsplash

The town of Saumur, along the River Loire, makes both red and white wines. Photo from Lea Deleligne on unsplash

The beneficial mold, Botrytis cinerea (the “noble rot”; in French, “pourriture noble”), affecting grapes in the Sauternes region of Bordeaux, France. Photo from Edwin on flickr.

Nearly every French winemaking region outside Champagne produces sparkling wine.

Red wines get your attention; white wines request it. Red wines deliver; white wines entice. Photo from Pinar Kucuk on unsplash.

The seductions of Viognier are its heady perfume and sexy texture.

Sauvignon Blanc does one thing overwhelmingly well—it stands out in a crowd.

It is a blessing that Sémillon has so little native flavor and aroma—because it sometimes it transforms into some of the world’s greatest (and most spight-after) wines.

Pinot Gris/Grigio grapes at harvest in the vineyard. Note the deep pinkish, even copperish, color of the skins. Photo from Stefan Schauberger on unsplash.

Grown and vinified just right and Marsanne turns out wines with rich, melon-y flavors, with hints of peaches and citrus.

Gewurztraminer’s nickname should be “Sui Generis.”

We’ve all sipped some Chenin Blanc in our day— fine Chenin Blanc such as dry Vouvray, if we were smart, or all that California “chablis” that we may have swilled in the ‘70s and ‘80s, if we weren’t.

Italy is home to hundreds of native-born wine grapes, some nearly extinct.

Chardonnay may be the world’s most favored white wine grape—and wine.

Riesling is the most misunderstood white wine grape of them all.