Bonarda

Originally from Italy, and now widely grown in Argentina, it is a fruity red with slight peppery notes.

Cabernet sauvignon

A good bottle should mix herbal notes with dark berries and cassis. It might have notes of raspberry, black cherry, plum, and raisin, and bell pepper, pepper, and mint.

Carménère

This varietal has dark berry, vegetal, herbal, spicy characteristics, and might display some chocolate, tobacco, and leather notes. It should please anyone who enjoys merlot for its casual unpretentiousness.

Grenache/garancha

A red, berry-flavored, and sometimes spicy varietal that is generally blended with other varieties.

Malbec

A grape variety from Bordeaux, France, where it is used in blends, malbec is now especially successful in Argentina, bottled on its own as a varietal. This red wine is fruity, medium bodied and, at its best, fairly complex.

Merlot

Merlots may have predominantly fruit aromas or offer a mix of fruit and wood on the nose. They may have herbaceous aromas in addition to typical dark-berry and spicy notes. Several merlots have been repeat high performers in our tests over the years, illustrating their typical dependability. We have found exceptional values that cost $10 or so a bottle.

Pinot noir

Subtle and moderately complex. Flavors include raspberry or strawberry, spicy notes, and cedar shavings. Typically dry, with medium finish.

Rioja

Wines from this region in Spain have a white version and a red version. Red Riojas can have an assortment of fruity, spicy, and woody (oak, vanillin, cedar, smoky/char) notes. It is sometimes blended from several grapes and therefore might display elements of each individual grape.

Syrah/shiraz

This varietal, known as shiraz in Australia, syrah in France, and either term here in the U.S., should have a balance of fruit, tannins, acidity, and oak, with an assortment of fruity, spicy, and possibly woody aromas. Its dark color reflects the richness of the wine.

Tempranillo

This major grape used in Rioja has aromas and flavors of berries and plum, and hints of tobacco and leather.

Zinfandel

Flavors may include raspberries and dark fruit, ripe and/or jammy fruit, spicy, peppery hints, leather, tobacco, and oak or smoky/charred notes. This varietal should be medium- to-full bodied, highly complex, well balanced, dry to slightly off-dry, and have a medium-to-long finish. It often has more alcohol than other varietals.

Albariño

A fruity Spanish wine that pairs especially well with seafood.

Chardonnay

Fruity-style chardonnays have apple, pear, citrus, and tropical-fruit flavors; buttery/woody chards emphasize butter or butterscotch flavors and wood/vanillin notes.

Pinot grigio/gris

Pinot grigios tend to be fairly simple white wines, light-bodied and dry. Excellent bottles have an intense yet balanced mix of tropical fruit, citrus, and Juicy Fruit gum flavors (no kidding; all are characteristic of pinot grigio), punctuated by a crisp acidity.

Prosecco

This Italian sparkling wine is simpler, less austere, and a more relaxed experience than champagne. It has softer bubbles than champagne, and is generally fruitier. Like champagne, it usually lacks a vintage year, because it may blend wines from several harvests.

Riesling

If you think wine must be dry to be sophisticated, try a good bottle of Riesling. Rieslings can vary in the degree of sweetness, which makes them compatible with a wide range of food. Those bottles we judged very good are less complex than the best chardonnays, but they are well balanced despite their often-intense fruit flavors, and they offer superb value. Many better Rieslings we tested cost under $10.

Sauvignon blanc

Many of the sauvignon blancs in our tests were from New Zealand, demonstrating how a "New World" country can take a varietal that Europeans once dominated and also do it well, at least at prices below $20. This white wine is on the tart, acidic side. It's generally dry and has herbal flavors and notes of tropical and citrus fruits such as banana, passion fruit, grapefruit, pineapple, and mango.

Sparkling wines

Sparkling wine

In our tests, some pricier, big-name champagnes were bested by sparkling wines costing as little as $10. Some top sparkling wines in our tests were produced in California. Since many Champagnes and sparkling wines lack a vintage year listed on their labels, it's difficult to know how long they've been sitting on a shelf. Our advice: Buy from a high-volume store with quick turnover to better your chances of getting a fresh bottle.

Torrontés

Associated with Argentina, it is recognized for its fruity and floral characteristics, but is dry. It pairs well with smoked meats, spicy Thai or other Asian foods and seafood dishes.

Verdejo

This grassy varietal from Spain is sometimes blended with sauvignon blanc under the designation of "rueda," and makes a great summer wine.

Rosé

Made from dark grapes, this wine has little or no contact with the grape's skin, so it's lighter in color than reds. Some bottles may have a touch of sweetness and nice fruit flavors that stand up to savory or spicy foods. Others may be drier and leaner, with a prominent acidity that would pair well with sushi, grilled, stewed, or smoked seafood, or barbecued meats. It's best served well-chilled.

White zinfandel

A rosé wine made from red Zinfandel grapes and known as pink rosé or blush, this varietal is usually known for being simple, sweet, and soft, as well as low in alcohol. It pairs well with lighter foods such as a fruit salad.

Argentina

Argentina's wines are being discovered by the United States. Most Argentine wines come from the country's Mendoza region, in the West. Like Chile, Argentina produces a great deal of wine in the big varietals—chardonnay and cabernet. But even more than Chile, it is increasingly producing less-familiar varietals that are distinctive to Argentina, or at least flourish there. The best example is malbec (see Red wines), but there's also Torrontés (see White wines) and Bonarda (another red).

Australia

Australia is the biggest force in New World wines. It has a reputation for value, so it's quite heavily represented in our Ratings, though like other New World producers, more higher-end Australian wines are becoming available in the U.S. Specialties include chardonnay and shiraz, which are widely grown, merlot, cabernet, sauvignon blanc, and others. The giant Australian producer Yellow tail produces a dazzling range of varietals, many of which have done well in our tests.

California

California has growing competition for American wine palates, but the Golden State is still the single greatest source of the nation's wine. California's signature grapes are the most popular white and red varietals in the U.S.—namely, chardonnay (sometimes in the more woody and buttery style for the varietal) and merlot (typically in a big and bold style). Some California chardonnays, especially, fare well in our recommendations. But California bottles show up in virtually all of our tests, including those for sauvignon blanc, pinot grigio, merlot, and pinot noir.

Chile

Chile is the biggest South American name in wine in the U.S., though it's further behind Australia, and so still more focused on value end. But more higher-end Chilean wines are emerging, with reserves from the big vineyards like Concho y Toro. Dominant varietals here include the big sellers—cabernets and chardonnays—though it also has a reputation for some fine sauvignon blancs. As Chilean familiarity grows, more of the country's distinctive varietals are coming in to the U.S.—leading the way is cabernet, followed by merlot, and also a varietal called carménère.

France

France is a huge and diverse producer. Relatively few French wines appear in our Ratings for several reasons.

• French wines tend toward blends more than do some other regions (for example, Bordeaux) and are therefore hard to compare side-by-side with varietal wines.
• It's harder to identify the varietals in French wines, which tend to be named for their region, not for the grape (there is little French "chardonnay," for example, though the grape is used in white burgundy).
• It's hard to find promising wines from France to compete with other countries in the price range in which we test.

Italy

Italy boasts a dazzling array of native wine varietals, more of which are making their way to wine stores in the U.S. Most of the Italian wines we've tested have been in two such varietals, pinot grigio and prosecco. Italy's pinot grigios tend to be dry, light, and tart—critics even say ho-hum bottles taste like "lemony water" or the wine equivalent of light beer. Prosecco is a sparkling wine that's simpler and less austere than most sparkling wines, with softer bubbles and generally more fruitiness.

New Zealand

New Zealand, which has emerged more recently than Australia, has a reputation built mostly on its sauvignon blanc (especially from the country's Marlborough area), where it has dominated our recent Ratings. Yet New Zealand is also growing other varietals, especially pinot noir from cooler regions, though those have yet to gain the acclaim of its sauvignon blancs.

Spain

Spain is one of the great values in wine today, even though the country's great wines can easily run to hundreds of dollars. It produces a host of wines that offer high quality at often very reasonable prices, less represented in our Ratings than most New World countries because Spain's varietals tend to be distinctive; there's little or no Spanish chardonnay, cabernet, sauvignon blanc, for example. Instead, Spain produces its own varietals, including tempranillo and garnacha (grenache) in reds, and whites that include albariño and verdejo.

Washington State

The State of Washington is a relatively new, relatively small wine-growing area that provides a disproportionate number of wines that offer decent (or better) quality at a reasonable price. Offerings from Columbia Crest and Hogue, two major producers, have often shown up in our recommendations for such varietals as chardonnay, Riesling, merlot, and cabernet sauvignon.