In my work at Vino Italian Tapas and Wine Bar, I taste many different styles of wine.

There are times when I sample a bevy of “trophy” wines, each world-class, grand and truly memorable. This is especially enjoyable when I revisit a particular wine that I had tasted 20 or 30 years prior and can see firsthand how it has changed with age.

Another joy of tasting wines is to run across one that stands out with honest, unpretentious and artisanal qualities. It’s like hearing a singer sing a song his own way, from the heart. These wines are especially endearing, and they greatly over-deliver for the dollar.

The Henri Perrusset Macon Villages (about $20 a bottle) is a prime example. This is a country-styled, chardonnay-based white wine from the limestone soils of the Macon region of southern Burgundy, France. A flowery, ethereal, some say seashell, character makes its way from the limestone-marine soils, through the vine and into the grape itself. While some will argue that this is just a romantic notion, I don’t find those kinds of qualities in grapes from vines grown in clay soils.

Check this out yourself. Buy a bottle of a New World chardonnay — from California, Oregon, New Zealand or Australia, for instance, and sample it alongside this Perrusset.

Consider which one is more refreshing and thirst-quenching. Given the weather we have been experiencing lately, this is the kind of wine that hits the spot for sipping on those especially warm, muggy days.

Over the course of more than 40 years of tasting wine, I have never run across a Macon Villages that hits the spot like the one from Perrusset. Yet this bottle is certainly not grand or highly acclaimed, and I would be surprised if it ever scores more than 85 points on any wine writer’s 100-point scale. Nonetheless, this wine has the “it” factor — honest, unpretentious, artisanal and personal — something I am reminded of each time my wife smiles when a bottle is cracked open.

As one would imagine, wines like this are few and far between.

Another standout for me is the Scherrer “Old and Mature Vines” zinfandel bottling (about $30). I recall being blown away when sampling a 1991 bottle (which I believe was the inaugural commercial bottling). I so loved this wine that the very next day I drove out to meet the owner and winemaker, Fred Scherrer. I was completely taken by how elegant, wonderfully textured and balanced the wine was, especially in an age of ultra-ripe, hearty, robust and high-alcohol wines.

The amazing part of all this is that Scherrer’s wine project was essentially a one-man show. His subsequent winemaking facility and approach truly exemplified the term artisan. The best way I can describe it: This is old-vine Alexander Valley (the vines were first planted in 1912) crafted by a pinot noir specialist.

To top it all off, the Scherrer zinfandel is a great example of how older bottlings get better with age. While many wines can age, how many really improve?

Here is one!

Chuck Furuya is a master sommelier and a partner in the DK Restaurants group. Follow his blog at chuckfuruya.com.