If you’ve heard anything about Spanish wines, you’ve probably heard of Rioja. It’s the vinous equivalent of paella -- ubiquitous, tasty, damn hard not to like. But just as Spanish cuisine runs a lot deeper than saffron-colored rice cooked with assorted meats and shellfish, so too does Spanish winemaking encompass a lot more than the Tempranillo-based wine produced in the region south of Spain’s Cantabrian mountains.

Red varietals like Garnacha, Garnacha Tintorera, Carinena, Monastrell, and Bobal, as well as such “world varietals” as Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot are grown in regions from Almansa to Jumilla to Navarra.

A lot of these regions and wines may not have the cachet of Rioja, but they make up for it in very reasonable prices for well-made wines that partner especially well with food. Don’t expect any 15-percent-alcohol fruit bombs like many of the inexpensive wines from California and Australia. Instead these Spanish bottles are light- to medium-bodied, with tangy, restrained fruit and relatively high acidity.

In the price-to-value department, it’s tough to beat the 2007 Bodegas Borsao, which sells for the princely sum of nine bucks. Fresh, simple, almost candied fruit aromas carry through to the palate, where it sits lightly but quite pleasantly. This is the perfect wine to chill and take to the beach. Or just drop a few ice cubes into it; even the Wine Police won’t care.

One of the new-style Spanish wines is the 2007 El Prado from Valencia. A blend of 70 percent Tempranillo and 30 percent Cabernet Sauvignon, like the Borsao it’s also very approachable, though with a firmer structure and some vaguely funky aromas that blow off after a few minutes of being opened.

Or sometimes they don’t, like the 2005 Castillo de Almansa. Unusual in that it’s exclusively Garnacha Tintorera, it’s also odd in that it’s so unrelievedly earthy it tastes like a spoonful of dirt was dissolved in each bottle. On the other hand, you might be able to grow tomatoes in it.

So never mind that one. Take a ten spot and pick up a bottle of one of Spain’s best-known bargains, Torres’s “Sangre de Toro” (“Blood of the Bull”). Not only do you get a nifty little plastic bull tied around the neck, but the 2006 vintage delivers surprisingly complexity for the price, with notes of toast, cassis, and anise in the nose, and flavors of tart cherries shaded by mint and anise. A very nice wine, even without the toy.

A pair of 2004 vintages mine rather heartier territory. The Viña Rubican Crianza dishes a stiff shot of oak and firm tannins to go along with its minty, cherry-berry fruit; while the Carchelo Monastrell (Mourvedre in most of the rest of the world) plays up that grape’s black-cherry/cassis character, with nuances of mushrooms, olives, and anise. It might be a little much for paella, but that’s not the only dish in the sea.

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