Clos Rougeard's rare (and pricey) Chenin Blanc is one of the most intriguing white wines of the Loire Valley. This Pradeaux rose is only a year old, but already offers a glimpse of what time in the cellar will do. Been so busy lately with work that I just haven't had time to write here. Whoa, this is just amazing wine. Briny.

This is absolutely top notch wine, I bet it would improve with time in the cellar, and it sells for $20 before a mixed case discount. Red wines from Cheverny in the Loire Valley can include a variety of grapes. Moric Domaine Guion Cheverny Bourgueil Austria Muhr-Van der Niepoort Jura Loire Valley Clos du Tue-Boeuf Domaine Labe

In Burgundy and the Loire Valley, it can be difficult to find the producers you are trying to visit. Even when you taste from the solera barrels you are experiencing but one version of the wine, the version that the cellar master wants you to see on that day, not the finished wine. Entrance to Bodegas Emilio Hidalgo.

When I think of most of the wines that I love, be it Burgundy, Loire Valley wines, Beaujolais, and even Champagne, I think of those wines as representing a specific place. First of all, there are no underground cellars, no steps to walk down, no moldy walls and frigid caves. Now I know a little bit more.

Cellar space is at a premium in NYC. There are many different wines in my "cellar" (read: wine fridge ), things that most anyone would agree should be left alone for years before drinking. Such is life - there are choices to make and one cannot cellar every interesting bottle of wine. couple examples. need an underground cave.

But he knows enough about wine so that his search was very specifically directed, and he found something from the Loire Valley that should be fantastic - I'll let you know how it goes in a few weeks. BrooklynLady and I love Loire Valley white wines, particularly Huët - who doesn't? So this producer is meaningful too.

cannot imagine cellaring it, as it tastes so good now, and doesn't seem to be holding anything in reserve. That's the thing with these Lopez wines - they release them when they think they're ready, but maybe they should get a little more time in your cellar anyway. Some of my favorite wines have just been released in new vintages.

SF Joe, as he's known on the wine bulletin boards, is a brilliant and dedicated aficionado of the Loire Valley wines (among others). He was hanging out with a guy named Kirk, another NYC wine guy with a legendary cellar and a generous soul. Well, the chef at Alto did, anyway. Levi just organized the whole thing.

Mateo and Andy Kehler raise their own cows and make their own cheeses, but they also cellar small-batch cheeses made by other dairy farmers, including the famous Cabot's Cloth Bound Cheddar. This cheese is aged at the Cellars at Jasper Hill. We've been delving further into domestic cheeses lately with some very good results, mostly.

Dressner did cut a few corners this year, for example by refusing to hire staff for the tables and thereby forcing wine makers from small villages scattered throughout the Loire Valley to travel all the way to NYC to pour the wines themselves. People came from all over the world to participate. And at about $17, it's money well spent.

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?

We can watch as he interviews wine makers, wanders through their vines and cellars, eats with them, listens to their stories. One learns, of course, about his wine makers and their wines, but also about the Loire Valley and wine making in general. He created a channel on YouTube and uploaded home made videos.

thought the 2007 was delicious at first too but it was also very angular and sharp, needing time in the cellar find its inner harmony. Tags: Muscadet Loire Valley Domaine de la Pépière Without hesitation he said "Muscadet." It tickles me that this guy whose wines sell for hundreds of dollars a bottle, drinks $15 Muscadet.

Cour-Cheverny is high-acid wine, even by Loire Valley acid freak standards. We blind-tasted the wines and individually picked our two favorites for current drinking, along with a wine that we would want for the cellar. Keith declared that he would happily buy his favorite for his own cellar. Alice loved this wine.

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.

Savennières wines are world-class whites from Chenin Blanc, wines with enormous cellaring potential, but they are wines that can be austere in their youth, like a barren moonscape - nothing but rocks and sand. Both the 2002 and the 2004 Bel Ouvrage seem like they will develop beautifully with cellar time. Why the outsider status?

just checked my cellar notes and 19 out the last 23 bottles of Chinon that I drank at home were Baudry wines. This is a vigneron who is still establishing himself, and who seems to be doing the right things in the vineyards and in the cellar. Tags: Wine of the Week Wilfrid Rousse Loire Valley Chinon

This wine seems as if it could do another 15 years in the cellar without blinking. Brilliant purity on the palate, great acidity, very youthful, this wine will clearly reward long term cellaring, and somewhere down the line I think will make a great cheese partner. Perhaps even the seafood stereotype entirely. Someone said pineapple.

looked through our little cellar, considered a fancy Chablis, flirted with a great bottle of Champagne, and toyed with the idea of an Equipo Navazos Sherry. Tags: Cookin' with Brooklynguy Touraine Loire Valley Clos Roche Blanche Since there was no chance of getting a babysitter on short notice, only one of us could go out.

In that year the wine was deeper and more structured than usual, and although delicious, seemed to need overnight air before showing its best, or perhaps a bit of time in the cellar. Tags: Wine of the Week Loire Valley Bernard Baudry Chinon 2007 Domaine Bernard Baudry Chinon Cuvée Domaine , $18, Louis/Dressner Selections.

Savio works with small growers who take care for their environment and who make wine naturally - relying mostly on indigenous yeasts, minimal sulfur, minimal cellar manipulation, and light or no filtration. "I drank a few of your wines recently and I really like them. want to try more of them - are you having a spring tasting?" had a blast.

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. Tags: Vouvray Huet Wine of the Week Loire Valley 2007 Domaine Hu e t Vouvray Sec Clos du Bourg , $28, Robert Chadderdon Selections.

This is a serious wine, an old vines cuvée (35 years average) that offers great pleasure in young drinking, but will also improve with several years in the cellar. Tags: Loire Valley Bernard Baudry Chinon I've been up on a Burgundy high horse for a while. I've had some wine in the past two months, you know. That's $16.20

We’re back with Part Deux of our interview with John Gilman, author of the newsletter A View from the Cellar ( part one is here ). How do you make a screwcap-sealed wine taste and smell like rotting cabbage or burning rubber- put it in the cellar for a few years. The Loire. German Riesling. just don’t get it. Rhône today.

He started his career in wine retail, later worked as a sommelier with a soft spot for Burgundy, and now has embarked on the foolhardy notion of writing a bi-monthly wine newsletter, A View from the Cellar. As far as red wines go, Cru Beaujolais and Loire Valley reds are neck and neck for this honor. Onward! And five years?

2005 was the vintage of the century in Bordeaux, the vintage of the millennium in Burgundy, the finest post-World War II vintage in the Rhône, and the greatest vintage in recent memory in the Loire. I'm not sure that there is much point in long-term cellaring this one. The top vineyard in the estate and always a wine worth cellaring.

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. Other than H uët's, I have yet to be truly wowed by any Loire sparkling wine, I must say. Beautiful stuff.

In honor of their 20th anniversary, the Dressner folk dug into the cellar and set out a load of wines from their inaugural vintage. And as far as I know, 1988 wasn't a particularly great vintage - just a normal working class year in the Loire Valley. And last for me were the great Loire reds, and what a way to end the day.

Be that as it may, are we supposed to give up entirely on building our modest wine cellars? can cut down on buying new shoes and underwear, but no fine wine for the cellar - that would be an undo hardship. Make your morning coffee at home - why pay almost 3 bucks for it each day? There are many little ways to reduce spending.

So wasn't Deetrane lucky that one of the head honchos at Acker Merrall, where he cellars all of his wine, contacted him say that another client was looking to buy Brunello with a few years of age under $100 a bottle. had the 2005 François Chidaine Montlouis-sur-Loire Les Tuffeaux the other night and it was honestly just amazing.

BrooklynLady requested a Sancerre with this dinner and it happens that we had only one in the cellar, the 2005 Domaine Pascal Cotat Sancerre Les Monts Damnés , $42, imported by Michael Skurnik Wines. And it would save me from cellaring a bottle of wine that I didn't like. Finally, I did it! Why would I celebrate such a thing, you ask?

In a way, it's silly of me to have so little understanding about the development Loire Valley wine over the long term. have a lot of the young stuff in the cellar - shouldn't I know more about what happens to this wine in 20 years? But the Chinon cork was quite short, unusual for a wine meant for extended cellaring.

Thierry Puzelat, along with his older brother Jean-Marie, is responsible for a big lineup of delicious wines from the Touraine and Cheverny appellations in the eastern part of the Loire Valley. Puzelat's wines are delicious regardless of the particularities of the weather in the vintage. They buzz with energy, some say "wildness."

bought a bunch (by my small NYC cellar standards) of Loire Valley reds and whites from the heralded 2005 vintage, and most of them require some cellaring in order to show at their best and most complex. It will be interesting to see how this changes with a few years in the cellar. We'll have to wait and see.

The sec in particular demands years in a cold cellar in order to truly express itself. Maybe I'm missing something, but I found this to be nowhere near the quality of several other Loire sparklers. NV Foreau Vouvray Brut , $25, Rosenthal Imports. love Foreau's still wines. The last time I had this wine was about three years ago.

Olivier Cousin makes natural wines, working his family's property in the central part of the Loire Valley near the area defined as Coteaux du Layon. They can be funky and a bit rustic, but they evolve beautifully in the glass and in the cellar, and offer a clean and pure expression of the terroir that is Layon.

the gorgeous rosé of Pinot D'Aunis by Eric Nicolas at Domaine de Bellivière in the nothern Loire Valley. read a comment about this wine by someone named Slaton on Cellar Tracker and it really hit home for me: he suggested that the richness of the wine would make it a good pairing with crab. There is (was?)

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.

went with the 2002 Domaine des Baumaurd Coteaux du Layon Clos du Sainte Catherine , $28 on release, imported by Ex Cellars Wine Agency. And the 2002, a great year in this part of the Loire Valley, should still have plenty of ripe fruit to go along with complexity and some sweetness. That's right, Alice Feiring! think so.

I only began cellaring wine a few years ago, so if I drink a mature wine at home it means that I bought a wine that some one else cellared for me. Because in most micro climates the weather never really got hot enough for long enough, the wines do not typically have the stuffing that requires long term cellaring in order to tame.

My first time tasting a wine of 100% Menu Pineau, one of those old Loire grapes that has mostly faded from memory. If you're into Loire whites, this is one to try. The grapes fermented very slowly for a year in the cold cellar. I went to the Polaner Spring Portfolio Tasting today at Gotham Hall in Manhattan. Pinon's wines.

Aside from Baumard and Foreau, this is actually somewhat representative of what I have sleeping in the cellar too. The rest makes sense, Loire reds and Beaujolais all the way. When I was thinking about splurging on wine, I also started wondering about my overall drinking habits. Montevertine - who knew?

Even though the Euro commands more than one and a half dollars, there are serious and beautiful wines to be had from the Loire Valley for under $20. Cellar-worthy wines too. Here are two very fine examples : 2005 Château d'Epiré Savennières Cuvée Spéciale , $18. This wine really blew me away. Deeper than that.

2005 Burgundy and Loire Valley wines are already on the market, and both show exceptional promise. So, what about the Rhone Valley? The first two wines we tasted from the 2005 vintage in the Rhone Valley were, to put it mildly, exceptional: 2005 Chateua Saint-Jean Chateauneuf du Pape and the 2005 J.L. Chave St. The J.L.

I've been checking in on my 2005 Loire wines lately, just to see how things are going. Loire-lovers have been touting 2005 as a great vintage, as good as 05 in Burgundy or Bordeaux. And if you're into cellaring wine, these will improve for at least a decade, probably longer. Even so, the quality is so obvious.

read somewhere that the wines of Calon-S é gur require about 86 years of cellaring before they drink well, so I decanted almost four hours in advance and kept my fingers crossed. I know it's a touchy time to talk about Bordeaux , but I'm going for it anyway. I'm not trying to stoke the fires of the debate. Do you do that? Anyway.We

In other words, if you hate it now, 8 years in a humid, cool, and dark cellar will not bring redemption. Well, even as little as a year of cellaring can bring about positive developments in a wine. Here are two lucky examples of this, both from the Loire Valley. But wine really does evolve. was dead wrong about this wine.

The bottle must be topped off before corking and cellaring. The cork goes in and the bottle rests in the cellar for at least 15 months (3 years for vintage Champagne) and depending on the producer and the type of wine, for much longer. 2000 Chateau Tour Grise Saumur Brut Non Dose , $16 at Slope Cellars. No sugar?

And a cavernous and quiet cellar where the oak barrels rested with their bounty, waiting for their chance at the big time. One that I particularly remember is the 1994 Elizabeth's Reserve that we drank while packing the night before our Loire Valley trip. Adelsheim was born in 1978, although the work began in or before 1971.

We went to the Loire Valley and our plan was to see the various villages, and Tours, of course, but also to feast on the wonderful food and wines of the region. So this is an investment, not just in the Burgundy type of cash, but also in cellar space. And if I ever go back to the Loire Valley Bordeaux? revelation!

Dry Loire white : Foreau 2005 Vouvray Sec Clos Naudin. Off-dry Loire white : 2005 Chidaine Montlouis-sur-Loire Clos Habert. Loire red: 2005 Château de Coulaine Chinon Bonnaventure. Obsc ure appellation putting out excellent wine : Cheverny in the Loire Valley. That's a lot of writing about wine and food.

2002 was a wonderful year in the Loire Valley and I LOVED this wine when I tasted it several times a few years ago. few years ago as a current release (at $18 when the dollar still had some muscle) I didn't buy enough for the cellar, so this time I made sure to grab my fair share. mean, no stampeding on my account, okay folks?

couple of general thoughts: the Loire wines kind of blew the others away. Happily for consumers, there are many producers making great wine in Touraine, Cheverny and other parts of the Loire, many of the wines at this price. Good friends NorthCarolinaGuy and Gal were in town for a few days and what better reason to have a wine tasting?

Chenin Blanc is, in my opinion, the superstar white grape of the Loire Valley. Amazing dry and off-dry wines from famous ouvray and Savennieres, and upstart appellations such as Montlouis sur Loire, Anjou, Jasnieres, and Coteaux du Loir. That rules out a lot of wine. And almost always a good value, too. Until next time

No matter how familiar (so-so, at best actually) I start to feel with the Loire Valley, I taste something new and remember how many skilled producers there are making wine. When I first read this piece I got excited about the sweete wines - I have a serious thing for Loire sweet wines. And I have tasted so little of it.

hope, though, that the few expensive bottles I have taste as they "should," as the wine tasted when I decided, based on that taste, to buy more of the wine for cellaring. It was very pure, with that rainwater sensation that I love in good Loire whites. am not complaining about this, so don't get me wrong.

Not everyone is A Burghound, nor does everyone have the cellar depth to hang with Bill Nanson at Burgundy Report. Same for Oregon Pinot, and for the Loire Valley. Joe at Joe's Wine Journal tagged me, and now I'm it. wasn't going to play because Joe has cooties, but then I decided that cooties aren't so bad. So why do I blog?

to lay down in the cellar for a while. An Oregon Pinot from cult producer Peter Rosback, but not from the Willamette Valley. 2005 Belle Pente Willamette Valley Pinot Gris , $17. Loire Valley 2004 Cazin Cour-Cheverny , $12. 1999 Simi Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Alexander Valley , $45. Buy carefully in 2001.

So for all of you who want to poke your toe in the waters of the Loire, here is my case. Not a case from all over the world like Lyle's and Joy's, but Brooklynguy's case of Loire wine, a case that I believe will make anyone who likes wine a Loire lover. 2005 Chidaine Montlouis sur Loire Clos Habert , $26. And $17 - c'mon.

In the end I settled on an experiment that interested me from the Loire Valley - Bernard Baudry's 2004 wines. have enjoyed this wine very much in recent years, although the 2005, supposedly a great year in the Loire Valley, is not yet drinking well in my opinion. This wine can improve for many years in the cellar.

Domaine du Closel makes some of my favorite wines, not just white wines, or Loire Valley wines, but some of my favorites, period. don't often drink 10 year old wine, although I aim to change that gradually by cellaring wines myself. Les Caillardieres tends to improve with age for about 5 years or so. and turnip puree.

think I liked it so much because it reminded me of other wines that I love from the Loire Valley. She would have preferred to pick a more typical wine, and she would not pick this wine to cellar, just to drink now. And I might grab a few of these for the old cellar. Gruner Veltliner - the hip wine? Give me time though.

According to my records in Cellar Tracker, Burgundy accounts for upwards of 25% of my wine consumption in 2007 (I'm not getting into actual numbers, because I don't want you to think that I'm some sort of booze-soaked sot, or something). get less pleasure from them than I do from a $15 Loire red, for example. Why not? So that's it?"

BrooklynLady and BrooklynBaby, a few good friends, a little something tasty to eat, 6 bottles of wine, young red wine from the Loire Valley.you cannot really do much better than that on a Thursday night, or any night, I daresay. There are many appellations in the Loire Valley and several grapes are used to make red wine.

Muscadet ( mus-ka-DAY) is a region in the western part of the Loire valley, near the city of Nantes. Shall I make room in the cellar for a $15 beauty? I remember about three years ago, in the summer time, my then girlfriend BrooklynLady and I were hanging out in her kitchen cooking together, talking about wine. Pale straw color.

But I also noticed from reading Jack and Joanne's biodynamic wine producers guide , that many of the wines that I love and cellar are right there on the list, particularly in the Loire Valley: Closel, Breton, St. Maybe biodynamic wines ARE better, or maybe I just love wines from the Loire Valley. cents. Next time.

Part of my Burgundy exploration includes drinking wine, and part includes purchasing wine for cellaring. A) Imported by Dressner, and I tend to like the Loire Valley wines imported by Dressner.maybe their one Burgundy import is good.B) could grab a bottle or two and stick them in the cellar. Why this wine?

This was over a year ago, and we liked the wine enough that we bought 3 bottles for our "cellar" at Prospect Wine Shop. really liked it though, and I imagine that it is amongst the best such Cabernet Franc wines of the Loire Valley. I find it hard to share notes about every wine that I enjoy. Remondo , $24. Good acidity.

looked at a a report of my wine consumption in Cellar Tracker , the useful wine inventory and community tasting software created by Eric LeVine, and I see that my 2006 average value per bottle is $24.31. also love Loire Valley reds, and top producers make wines that cost $10-15. can open a good Pinot once or twice a week.

Maybe it's because the Loire Valley doesn't excite people the way Bordeaux or the Napa Valley excite people. Maybe it's because this wine is obscure even within the Loire Valley. Like the great Chenin Blanc grape, also a daughter of the Loire Valley, Romorantin might show best in its demi-sec (off-dry) form.

am more and more impressed with the 2005 vintage in the Loire, and this wine was a show stopper. This is a cellar selection, in my opinion, as I am certain that the flavors and aromas will become more complex in time. Worth reading, although I warn you - you may feel compelled to visit Burgundy afterwards. Now, the weekend's wines.

He wasn't familiar with the producer but he knows that I love the Loire reds. Even though 2000 was a tough year in which many Loire reds were kind of fruitless and diluted, good producers should still make good wine, right? It doesn't seem as if this wine will improve much with cellaring - there is just not enough stuffing.

Mr. Erhart loves wine from the Loire Valley. We have since then taken every opportunity to try other Breton wines - there are many cuvees, some meant to drink young, others aged in wood and meant to be cellared for at least a bit. One of the largest public housing projects in the US sits in Red Hook. But the food was excellent.

The 2005 vintage is supposed to be so good in many French wine regions, and the Loire Valley is one of them. Chamber Street, by the way, has a truly fantastic selection of Loire Valley wines, both the whites and the reds. We checked out the dark and dank cellar where hundreds.thousands (?)

Savennieres is one of the great Loire Valley appellations, producing amazing white wines made from the chenin blanc grape. Many wines made in Savennieres can improve for decades with cellaring. The wines are usually dry with pronounced minerality, and when well made, offer beautiful stone fruit and honey flavors. Mais bien sur!