Soulful: Scott Paul Cuvée Martha Pirrie Pinot Noir 2006, Oregon ($25)
This meticulously noninterventionist winery makes some of Oregon's best Pinots—complex and nuanced. 2006 was a joyously warm vintage, and this wonderfully pure cuvée has robust fruit as well as a soulful smack of earth.
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Crisp: Hidalgo La Gitana Manzanilla, Spain ($12)
Sherry is one of the most versatile wines in the world—and this is the one people order by name. Manzanilla is the lightest of sherry styles, but this classic is intense with minerals, green fruits and briny sea air, while being as crisp as a cloudless Mediterranean night.
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Grown-up: Rippon Pinot Noir 2005, New Zealand ($40)
This is a true expression of Pinot Noir: The vineyards are biodynamically farmed, and the wine is fermented with ambient yeasts and matured in unobtrusive oak. Its flavors are as layered as Grand Canyon sedimentary rock. Silky now, it will only get better.
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Resilient: Chateau Musar Blanc 2000, Lebanon ($32)
Made from two different indigenous white grapes grown in Lebanon, this wine is incredible. Grown just miles from Beirut, the vines may have witnessed strife, but the wine is complex and wondrously resilient. For such a treasure, the price is ridiculously low.
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Restrained: Qupé Syrah, Bien Nacido Hillside Estate, Santa Maria Valley 2005 ($45)
Often considered one of California's classic Syrahs—and its maker, Bob Lindquist, one of the masters of the grape—the wine still doesn't get all the credit it deserves. That's because very few people bother to cellar it to see how it ages. In a word? Beautifully.
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Floral: Tablas Creek Esprit de Beaucastel Blanc 2006, Paso Robles ($35)
Made from grapes grown in the limestone-inflected soils west of Paso Robles, this blend is anchored on the Roussanne grape. It's floral, fruity and tinged with wild herbs. The taste is as mineral as a glacial stream. Truly one of North America's greatest whites.
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Personable: Josef Leitz Rüdesheimer Drachenstein "Dragonstone" Riesling 2007, Germany ($17)
Everyone says the 2007 vintage—the best since 1971—will go down in history. For this wine, though, every year reveals one of the most delicious, and pleasing, whites in the world. Not exactly sweet and not exactly dry, it goes well with everything.
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Gulpable: Domaine Tempier Rosé 2007, France ($38)
In 2007, the famed Bandol Estate—so closely associated with Kermit Lynch and Chez Panisse—made perhaps its best rosé ever. Perfectly balanced, full-flavored, crisp and dry, all while still having classic "gulpability." Expensive, but worth every pink penny.
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Dry: Laurent-Perrier Ultra Brut Champagne, France ($78)
This Champagne is unusual in that it's bottled without the extra dose of sugar most sparklers get to keep them from being painfully shrill. Made only in exceptionally ripe years, it has the necessary roundness while remaining dry.
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Direct: COS Cerasuolo Di Vittoria 2005, Italy ($28)
This is what all good red wine should taste like—not specifically with these dusty-cherry, wild-herb and sweetly earthy flavors, but with this much knowledge of where it came from and sun-burnished juiciness, unencumbered by obvious oak.
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