Sometimes the story is almost as interesting as the wine. The wine in question is the Llai Llai Pinot Noir 2008, from Chile’s Bio Bio region, 300 miles south of Santiago and the southernmost of the narrow country’s vineyard areas.

Pierre Marchand, head winemaker for Bodegas Corpora, has been the winemaker for several prestigious producers in Burgundy, including Domaine Bruno Clair, Domaine Comte Armand and Domaine de la Vougeraie. In 1999, he joined the Boisset Group and went to work for the company’s joint venture in Chile with Corpora. When Boisset sold its share in the venture, Corpora took Marchand on as chief winemaker to oversee production for all its labels. Marchand does this while he continues to produce a negociant label in Burgundy under his own name. Making wine in Burgundy in one season and in South American at the following harvest must build up the frequent flyer miles. Winemaker for Llai Llai is Louis Vallet, another Burgundian who works two harvests a year, six months and many thousands of miles apart.

Despite their Burgundian orientation, Vallet and Marchard do not impose a classic (or trite) framework on Llai Llai Pinot Noir 2008, allowing for the individuality dictated by a rather exotic location for the grape. The wine sees some oak, but it’s a 50/50 combination of one-year-old French oak and stainless steel for 11 months, so any wood influence is persuasive yet gentle. The color is a lovely medium ruby with a magenta glow. The bouquet wafts a sweet exhalation of cloves and sassafras, dried red currants, tobacco leaf and spiced and macerated plums. This pinot noir is quite dry, lively and spicy, with flavors of red currants, cranberries and mulberries that unfurl a touch of cinnamon and a hint of briers and clean earth and enough tannin to make it slightly chewy. All factors are deftly handled, so the wine feels light without being tenuous and fleshed-out without being obvious. Alcohol content is 13.4 percent. Drink now through 2012. Very Good+. About $13, a Raving Bargain.

Imported by W.J. Deutsch & Sons, Harrison, N.Y. A sample from a broker.

Yes, Oveja Negra means “black sheep” — the outcast, the shunned — but this quartet of blended wines from Chile should be insiders on your table this summer. The wines are thoughtfully made from sustainable vineyards by Rafael Tirado, they’re primarily tasty and approachable, and the price, as you’ll see, can’t be beat. They’re from Chile’s Maule Valley, which lies within the country’s vast and productive Central Valley, which also include the vineyard regions of Maipo, Rapel and Curicó. No new oak is used with these Reserva wines. The bottles are topped with screw-caps for easy opening.

The Oveja Negra Reserva Sauvignon Blanc Carmenère 2009 is absolutely delightful. The blend is 85 percent sauvignon blanc and 15 percent carmenère, which, the sharp-eyed among you will assert, is a red grape, so it’s picked early, slightly under-ripe for the acidity, treated as if it were being made into a rosé wine, with no skin contact, and then blended back. The wine is made completely in stainless steel. This is clean, fresh and delicate, with penetrating scents of grapefruit, crushed jasmine, talc, lime peel and lemon balm; that’s right, you could dab it behind your ears on a soft summer night. Vivid acidity keeps the wine crisp and lively, buoying light flavors of slightly leafy lemon with hints of cloves and new-mown grass. The wine is quite dry and a little chalky, and the finish brings in a note of damp limestone. One of the prettiest wines around. Alcohol content is 13.2 percent. Very Good+. About $12 and a Great Bargain.

I was not quite as enamored of the Oveja Negra Reserva Chardonnay Viognier 2008, a blend of 82 percent chardonnay and 18 percent viognier. It’s simply a stylistic matter; this is rather too boldly and brightly spicy and tropical for my taste, but it’s certainly well-made. Ten percent of the wine is aged eight months in used French oak; in fact, these Oveja Negra Reserva wines see no new oak at all. Roasted grapefruit, baked pineapple, lemon-lime and lemon balm, a hint of spiced mango (and in the bouquet a beguiling touch of honeysuckle from the viognier): juicy but very dry, quite drinkable but more florid than I like, even in an inexpensive white wine. If it’s to your taste, go for it. Alcohol is 13.7 percent. Very Good. About $12.

The aromas of black and red currants that waft from a glass of the Oveja Negra Reserva Cabernet Franc Carmenère 2008 — the blend is 70/30 — are not only ripe and seductive but intense and concentrated and permeated by elements of cocoa powder and cloves, briers and brambles; the wine is deeply spicy and peppery, earthy and minerally in a crushed gravel sort of way, and its luscious, almost velvety black and red fruit flavors (with a whisk of cedary blueberry) lead to a finish with a touch of leathery austerity. The oak regimen is this: 40 percent of the wine aged eight to 10 months in a combination of 60 percent French and 40 percent American used oak barrels; the majority of the wine remained in stainless steel. A lot of personality for the price here, and a natural mate with grilled steaks and hamburgers or hearty pizzas and pasta dishes. 14.1 percent alcohol. Very Good+, and a Great Bargain at about $12.

Fourth in this roster is the Oveja Negra Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon Syrah 2008, a 68/32 percent blend with the same oak treatment as the Cabernet Franc Carmenère 08 mentioned above. This is a sizable wine, dense, concentrated, chewy, smoky and very spicy; it’s packed with earth- and mineral-infused black currant, blackberry and plum flavors, and the finish is stalwart with grainy tannins and polished oak. A little closed-in now and showing not quite the immediate pleasure of the previous wine. Perhaps a year in the bottle will soften it. 14 percent alcohol. Very Good. About $12.

Imported by Vici Wine & Spirits, Coral Springs, Fla. Tasted at a trade luncheon.