Throw out the rules. Pairing beef and white wine is great.

Whether you’re at a mahogany-paneled steakhouse or grilling chops at home, one of the sacred cows of wine pairing is red wine with beef. The logic goes like this: Big, tannic reds like cabernet sauvignon are powerful enough to hold their own alongside something as rich and savory as beef. Espoused by generations of sommeliers, it’s an iconic and almost inevitable combination, like milk and cookies, or Four Loko and regret.

But every hit record has a B-side. As tastes and menus evolve, forward-thinking wine professionals are bucking convention by pairing beefy dishes with bone-dry rieslings, bubbly blanc de blancs and other white wines. The unconventional approach works by contrasting a hearty protein with a robustly textured white wine, bringing brightness and vitality to the table.

It’s all part of a growing movement to challenge the so-called rules of wine, and it opens up worlds of possibilities for carnivores and the people who drink with them. The best part is, anyone with a taste for adventure can give it a try.

Which white wines pair best with steak?

Picking a white wine with plenty of acidity is key. It creates the tension and tactile components your wine needs to stand up to a beefy dish. When you pair red meat with a red wine, that textural role is typically played by tannins, the chemical compounds that give big, bold reds like cabernet sauvignon their grip. “The acidity works like Pop Rocks to cleanse the palate,” says Julie Dalton, Master Sommelier, chef-sommelier at the Post Oak Hotel in Houston, Texas. She likes to pair steak with dry rieslings, a combination she first tried during an experimental tasting at a Society of Wine Educators conference years ago. “That’s when I started questioning the quote-unquote rules,” she says.

Effervescence also creates texture in white wines, and the bubbles refresh your palate. “I would drink champagne with a grilled steak any day of the week,” says Amy Mundwiler, the national director of wine for Maple Hospitality Group, including the Chicago-based Maple & Ash steakhouse. “It’s all about balancing the texture and acidity with the delicious fattiness of steak,” she says, and calls champagne “the perfect gateway” to pairing white wine with beef.

Modern drinkers may be increasingly open to taking the road less traveled. While cabernet sauvignon is undeniably in demand, particularly in U.S. steakhouses, many wine professionals report that white wine sales are growing. Dalton reports that the sparkling wine flight outsells all others “by far” at her Houston wine bar, Stella’s, and finds that people order a pretty even split of red and white wines by the glass. “White wine is often less expensive than red,” she adds, a fact that even the most flush wine drinkers among us can hardly afford to ignore.

Which white wines won’t go with beef?

That’s not to say all white wines are perfectly suited to drink with red meat. “Any super lean, dry whites don’t really make sense,” says Chris Clark, the beverage director of Oiji Hospitality in New York City. “The beef is going to overtake it, and any fruit character is going to immediately disappear.” That’s why mild-mannered pinot grigios fermented in stainless steel aren’t great partners for richly marbled red meat.

Neither are aromatic white wines, like gewürztraminer, because their floral notes compete with, rather than complement, big, beefy flavors. “It becomes a question of, who’s the star here,” Dalton says.

In truth, the leading role is yours for the taking. Because there aren’t decades of inherited wisdom, when it comes to pairing red meat with white wine, you can set your own statutes and drink whatever and however you like.

“Throw some ice in your glass if you want,” says Mundwiler, laughing. “At the end of the day, wine has too many rules.”

Which regions and producers make the best white wine for beef?

Consider not only the variety, but also the region — grapes express themselves differently depending on where and how they’re grown and treated. For instance, if you grow chardonnay grapes in a warm environment and then ferment them in brand-new oak barrels, your wine will have riper fruit flavors and a much rounder profile than if you grew the same type of grapes someplace cold and fermented them in stainless steel vats.

Speaking of chardonnay: chablis, wine made from chardonnay grapes grown in Burgundy, France, tends to be bright and crisp, such as in versions by nationally distributed producers such as Laurent Tribut and Louis Jadot.

Chenin blanc is another high-acid grape. Look for dry bottlings from Loire Valley producers such as Château d’Epiré and Domaine de la Taille aux Loups, or head to South Africa for chenins from Joostenberg or Bosman Family Vineyards.

Many rieslings, such as Maison Trimbach, Alsatian; Alexander Schregel, German; and Brooks Wine, from Oregon’s Willamette Valley, are beautifully bright. So are petit mansengs from estates including Domaine Didier Dagueneau in Jurançon, France or King Family Vineyards in Virginia.

Another place to find beef-worthy texture is crisp sparkling wine, and options abound at various price points from producers worldwide. Consider bottles from Dr. Konstantin Frank in New York’s Finger Lakes, Schramsberg Vineyards in Napa or Jansz in Tasmania. Or try legendary champagne houses like Krug and Dom Pérignon if your wine budget is, well, beefy.

Consider your sauces and seasonings, too. While a grilled salt-and-pepper steak might be great with dry bubbles, a boldly spiced dish, like a Thai curry with sliced beef and eggplants, is best balanced by white wines with residual sugar or fruit-forward character. Dalton recommends rieslings from Oregon, Napa Valley and Washington producers such as Trisaetum, Trefethen and Eroica.

And since pairings are inherently subjective, experiment to find one that tastes right to you. Whatever you do, feel free to chuck the old rules.

• Emily Saladino is the associate managing editor of Wine Enthusiast. A former line cook, she has also created and tested recipes for cookbooks and other publications.