It has come up a few times in (offline) discussion that I have been in recently: do people still cellar wine? Just as it is advisable to play tennis with someone better than you to sharpen your skills, it is also advisable to find a generous friend who has a better (or, at least) different cellar than yours. Is mature wine relevant? MORE >>

Imported by European Cellars. 2005 Damien Laureau Savennières Le Bel Ouvrage , $32, Jon-David Headrick Selections, Imported by European Cellars. loved how completely woolly the wine was, compared with the flowery fruit and crystalline shimmer of the Savennières - such wonderfully different expressions of Chenin Blanc. MORE >>

If you know in advance that you will be opening a bottle of wine a few days from now, I suggest standing it up vertically in the cellar to let the sediment fall to the bottom of the bottle. It really depends on the wine: Auslesen and old sweet Chenin Blanc can appear really dark and be perfectly fine, for instance. I'm patient. MORE >>

As we sat down I took out the wine I brought along, the 2008 Pierre Gonon St Joseph Blanc Les Oliviers , $32, Fruit of the Vines Imports. This is a phenomenal wine, and one of the interesting things about it is that honestly, served blind, there would be no way to peg it as Sauvignon Blanc. Thai food for the western palate. MORE >>

It was not made using biodynamic farming principles, and I have no idea what Denise Joly did in her cellars. Peter suspects, actually, that this wine is was made under what were standard practices - pesticides galore in the vineyards, who knows what in the cellars. wine like this provides pleasure on many levels. 0% fruit. MORE >>