John Gilman, author of the newsletter The View from the Cellar , joins us again for a Q&A. But being younger than the gentleman I just mentioned, I do not have the same reserves of old vintages of white Burgundy or white Bordeaux in my cellar, and so premox has really hit my collection hard. Are these wines forcibly better? MORE >>

It requires skill in the cheese cellar and it is time consuming and expensive -- "For the cheese producer, the great advantage to vacuum-sealing in plastic is that it eliminates all the turning, rubbing, and brushing of traditional aging." Tags: Vouvray Huet Loire Valley Cheese Hard to be more definitive than that. MORE >>

want to give her great wines, wines that will improve with 19 years of cellaring. Many people consider these to be the finest Chenin Blancs from the Loire Valley and in the world. In contrast to the 2005 or 2002, it is not an exuberant wine, even after 3 days open. And happily, I can afford to buy and drink them. MORE >>

Moving to the Rhone valley in France I tried some wines from Eric Texier. Domaine Francois Pinon from the Loire Valley makes some demi-sec (semi sweet) wines from Chenin blanc. tasted some nice Chardonnays by Foxglove/ Varner Wines , L'Angevin , DuMol and Neiman cellars. don't know. And there was 1 rose' that I tried. MORE >>

It's also an egalitarian system - the host who feels flush can select 2002 Vosne-Roman é e 1er Cru wines as the theme. Recently it was our turn to host wine group and I chose Loire Chenin Blancs as the theme. This night for me was further proof for me that the Loire Valley offers truly profound white wines at reasonable prices. MORE >>