Jasper Hill Farm Bayley Hazen Blue Cheese, paired with 2002 Domaine du Closel Savennières Mo ëlleux Les Coteaux , $28, Louis/Dressner Selections. The wines of the Savennières appellation are typically dry, but in 2002 the Domaine du Closel made a sweet wine. It continues to fascinate me, the challenge of pairing wine with cheese. MORE >>

If I'm buying an age worthy wine, a good red Burgundy, for example, I'm a believer in buying three bottles and drinking one when young in order to know the wine in that phase of its life. remember asking my friend Peter about this as we drove from one cellar tasting to another in Burgundy a little over a year ago. And that's fine. MORE >>

wasn't buying Grand Cru Burgundy on my pathetic teacher's salary. In the first half of 2009, I drank a bunch of Muscadet and decided to age Marc Ollivier's 2007 Clos des Briords and Jo Landron's 2007 Fief du Breil , and the 2002 Luneau Papin Clos des Noelles Excelsior. You know what I realized the other day? Maybe not. MORE >>

And the 2002 Paul Bara Bouzy Rouge Coteaux Champenois , a wine that was probably the messiest of all when we first opened it, all bramble and pitch black fruit and very disjointed. You know, I used to love Closel but I kind of gave up on the wines after not liking anything after 2002 (and after the last of my 2002's showed oxidized). MORE >>

still love Pinot, but moreso the wines of Burgundy, Cheverny in the Loire Valley, or the Jura. Yes, but the key for me is to drink them without comparing them to Burgundy, to accept them as fruit-driven wines and to enjoy them as such. 2002 St. We loved the 2002 and I brought a few of these home with me from Portland a year ago. MORE >>