These wines are hidden in plain sight. No degree of arcane wisdom is required to participate in the festivity of flavors. One need only look up a bit from the usual in order to be rewarded. Ready to try out a few new things?

It's time for cabernet franc from the Loire valley, rather than cabernet sauvignon from Bordeaux or Napa. It's also an excellent time to drink refreshing whites like chenin blanc from California and from Vouvray; German Riesling; Austrian Grüner Veltliner and Alsace pinot blanc—and also that it's a real good time to drink rosé!

Don't make a face! The sort of rosé we promote has nothing in common with the wines you guzzled before you were old enough to legally drink wine. It comes perhaps from Spain, or from the south of France, and is finished dry. The sort of pink that's imminently fit to drink…

2001 Domaine Pélaquié Tavel Rosé—$12.99: A touch lighter and significantly more elegant than the Lirac, but also showing even more intense aromatics and a more persistent flavor. Tavel is made primarily from grenache, though this varietal is limited to 60%. Cinsaut also figures prominently in the mix.

2001 Touraine, La Roche Blanche—$6.99 This is very classy sauvignon blanc from one of the classic middle-Loire appellations. We find here 75% of the flavor of a good solid Sancerre, for 50% of the price. The nose proposes an appealing consortium of citric elements, after which the wine spreads softly across the palate—more so than one might imagine—and goes down with a brisk flourish.

2001 Glatzer Grüner Veltliner Kabinett: The great café wine of Vienna. It's a neat, sophisticated summer sipper from the Carnuntum region south of that erstwhile imperial and royal city. This hand-harvested white hits the checkout counter at $6.99. The high-toned aromatics fairly leap out of the glass, the wine is light and bright on the palate—it finishes crisp and dry with a lively snap. If one is accustomed to drinking Italian pinot grigio, the Glatzer Grüner Veltliner offers a step up in quality without taking a comparable hike in price.

2001 Pierre Boniface Apremont—$8.49 We'll keep this one out on the net all summer, or until it's all gone… from Savoie in the foothills of the French Alps—grape varietal is the jacquère, comes from the village of Apremont, where the grapes were grown in rocky limestony soil. Showing nice white flower and green apple aromas, nearly weightless on the palate, it's been bottled with a bit of carbon dioxide (which implies a tantalizing tingle on the tongue) and goes down real easy. Good match with those dinner table denizens who came out of the not-so-briny deep.