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 >>

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 >>

Stephen Bitterolf, the Wine Director at Crush , conceived of this event with an eye towards the famous La Paulée Burgundy dinners where everyone competes to bring the finest bottles and people walk from table to table tasting each others' wines. 2002 Bründlmayer Riesling Zobinger Heiligenstein Alte Reben. don't think he stopped to eat. 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 >>

After working as a nuclear scientist, Texier turned to wine, making his first in Burgundy. Our sixth wine was the excellent Cuvée Casimir 2007 ($35) by Franck Balthazar , another engineer who, in this case, came back to the family wine making fold in 2002. alcohol. The $16 price tag helped too. Then we tried the J. Chave , St. MORE >>