Cool climate syrah smells, tastes, even feels different as a wine than that from warmer vineyard areas. And wine tasters, once they put them side by side (in place or memory), might well prefer one to the other precisely for these differences. Most of these differences are accounted for by how syrah ripens, a function of climate if ever there was one. Photo from Al Elmes on unsplash

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.”

You may taste many things in a sip of red wine: a panoply of fruit flavors, earth or minerals, spicy wood, even the cleansing astringency of tannin. In a wine made from carménère, a red grape born in France but that has flowered of late in Chile, you also will taste mystery. Illustration of the Carmenère grape variety by Jules Troncy in the work "Ampelography,” 1901

It’s a no-brainer that the combination of best value and highest quality in wine now comes from offbeat winemaking regions and their odd grapes. Here’s a too-short look at that combo in red wine, from the grape’s point of view.  

Here's a tour of Austria's three major red wine grapes and the characteristics that define them. 

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

Keep in mind that it’s the globe’s lighter reds that will put you palate in good stead with as wide a range of foods as you wish to enjoy.

Like Gaul, all of Beaujolais is divided into three parts: Beaujolais, Beaujolais Villages and what are known as the Beaujolais “crus.”

Here’s to the reds of summer: soft, smooth, juicy reds that you’ll want to gulp rather than sip. Even reds that can take a chill.

Pink is the new black. Sales of imported dry rosé wine have tripled during the past 25 years.

Cabernet franc is generally “lighter, paler, crisper, softer, more aromatic and silkier” than cabernet sauvignon, Jancis Robinson writes.

Flavors and aromas of good red Garnacha or Grenache may include ripe strawberries, blackcurrants, raspberries, blackberries, dark cherries, black pepper, spices, coffee, fresh gingerbread, even tar or leather. Wow.

Well-made Argentine Malbec—and more examples are made each harvest—is about as delicious a red wine as there can be.

The red wine grape Nebbiolo means “little fog.” Really.

Sangiovese means “the blood of Jove.” Wow.

The red wine grape Syrah is also known around the world as Shiraz.

Barnera makes one of the finer red wines for a wide range of food.

Tempranillo sports more nicknames than a professional wrestler.