Perfect wines for sipping on the back porch

These red wines are a good on their own or as an accompaniment to a light summer meal. (Jonathan Wiggs/Globe Staff)

Left to themselves, grapevines are unambitious things, their loftiest aim being to produce fruit just sweet enough to attract birds whose busy little digestive systems will spread their seeds far and wide. As a reproductive strategy it's brilliant, but when people finally came on the scene we asked for more than a few bites of set-your-teeth-on-edge fruit.

We wanted grapes ripe enough to make stable, appetizing, pleasantly alcoholic wine. In time, with effort, we got it.

In return, humans have taken the wine vine farther from its ancestral homeland in the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains than birds could dream of. Today, coaxing fully ripe grapes from vitis vinifera is the obsession of winemakers in regions as remote from each other as the North Fork of Long Island and China's Hebei Province.

This time of year vines in the northern hemisphere are already hard at it, bless them, photosynthesizing their little hearts out. The results aren't impressive yet, since grapes stay hard and green for a long time before making a last minute, lung-bursting sprint to maturity. But soon the latest harvest of who-knows-how-many will be in the cellar.

Several thousand years of experience have taught wine drinkers that the most congenial way to pass the time while waiting for the new vintage is by tasting the wine of summers gone by. We agree. So, with a view to helping you spend more time in the Adirondack chair and less in the wine shop, we've assembled a little group of red wines eminently suited to accompany warm-weather meals or as stand-alone, feet-up, back-porch quaffs.

How did we know where to find them? A little bird told us.

Salzl Burgenland Zweigelt 2006. Very bright, juicy, and fresh with a hit of dark-roasted coffee bean; a versatile, easy-to-like little red you'll sip happily all summer long. Around $12. At Our Glass Wine Co., Saugus, 781-941-8068; Harkey's Wine and Spirits, Millis, 508-376-8833; Lower Falls Wine, Newton, 617-332-3000.

Reserve des Vignerons Saumur 2005. Beautifully ripe Loire Valley cabernet franc presents some fine bright, lively cherry-like fruit and appealing notes of cedar and lead pencil. Nicely herbaceous, but in no way weedy. A little gem. Around $10. Only at Wine and Cheese Cask, Somerville, 617-623-8656.

Montes "Classic Series" Colchagua Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2006. Distinctive minty-black raspberry aroma; nice mouthful of compote-like red fruits, brown spice, and a coffee note. Around $10. At Fifth Avenue Liquors, Framingham, 508-872-7777; Gordon's Fine Wines, Waltham, 781-893-1900; Bauer Wine & Spirits, Back Bay, 617-262-0363.

Santa Julia Mendoza Malbec 2006. Our column on Argentine malbec a couple of months ago missed this beauty. Rich, ripe, blocky dark red fruits and sweet loamy, earth notes; solid acid structure and really great zip. Very appealing little wine. Around $12. At Wine Emporium, South End, 617-262-0379; Whole Foods, River Street, Cambridge, 617-876-6990; Liberty Liquors, Mashpee, 508-477-7788.

Chateau Pesquie "Terrasses" Cotes du Ventoux 2005. We've enjoyed Pesquie rouge in almost every vintage since 1997 when we first tasted it with a roast chicken in a farmhouse kitchen in the Vaucluse. Full-flavored and comfortably soft with plenty of dark, plummy fruit; a versatile wine and strong candidate for your seasonal house red. Around $12. Wollaston Wines & Spirits, Quincy, 617-479-4433; Marty's Fine Wine, Newton, 617-332-1230; Wine and Cheese Cask.

- STEPHEN MEUSE

Stephen Meuse can be reached at onwine@comcast.net.