And, we’re back. This week--as we head into oyster season--Asimov and the panel break out the Muscadet, a wine commonly heralded for its compatibility with this prized bivalve. Coincidentally, this past weekend we began our annual Muscadet binge, which will likely extend through November, or the following August. (Our research shows that it’s best to make it a year-round thing.) It can be drunk without food out of solo cups at sunset, during late September when the beach is just starting to require a sweater. It can be drunk on a porch with peel-and-eat shrimp during the heat of the day. Or, if you don’t live in some idyllic New England fantasy, it can be drunk in your apartment with seafood, white meats, and in t-shirt, during any damn month of the year. It’s a wine whose subtlety allows it to exist as a backdrop, but not without a few pointed moments of very satisfying distraction.

The panel’s top ten picks and where you can buy them:

Andre-Michel Brégeon Muscadet de Sèvre et Maine 2008

Where to buy: Astor Wines

Famille Luneau Muscadet de Sèvre et Maine, Château des Fromenteaux Clos du Poyet Vieilles Vignes 2009

Where to buy: Amanti Vino (NJ)

Jo Landron Muscadet de Sèvre et Maine, Domaine de la Louvetrie Le Fief du Breil 2008

Where to buy: Saratoga Wine Exchange

Marc Ollivier Muscadet de Sèvre et Maine, Domaine de la Pépière Les Gras Mouton 2009

Where to buy: Chambers Street Wines

Domaine de la Pinardière, Muscadet de Sèvre et Maine 2009

Where to buy: Grand Wine Cellar

Bonnet-Huteau Muscadet de Sèvre et Maine, Cuvée La Levraudière 2009

Where to buy: Astor Wines

Luc et Jérôme Choblem Muscadet, Côtes de Grandlieu Clos de la Sénaigerie 2009

Where to buy: Sherry-Lehmann

Luneau-Papin Muscadet de Sèvre et Maine, Domaine Pierre de la Grange 2008

Where to buy: Astor Wines

Domaine de l’Aurière, Muscadet de Sèvre et Maine 2009

Where to buy: Astor Wines

Château la Noë, Muscadet de Sèvre et Maine 2009

Where to buy: Westchester Wine Warehouse

Welcome to this week’s  heavy duty BTG line up from Mr. Madrigale at Bar Boulud. Please be reminded that almost all of these wines are being poured at wholesale pricing and alone deserve a pilgrimage. This week’s kaboom: ‘02 Prince Florent de Merode Corton; ‘98 Pibarnon Bandol; ‘07 Domaine Leflaive Puligny Clavillon

Tuesday—1999 Barbaresco “Rabaja” Produttori del Barbaresco (Magnum)

Wednesday—2002 Corton Grand Cru “Renardes”, Prince Florent de Merode (Magnum)

Thursday—1993 Cornas, Noel Verset (Magnum)

Friday—1998 Bandol, Chateau Pibarnon (Magnum)

Saturday—2007 Puligny Montrachet 1er Cru “Le Clavoillon,” Domaine Leflaive (Magnum)

Sunday—2003 Salomon Estate, Finniss River Shiraz (Magnum)

Welcome to WineChap’s column “Economical Expeditions” wherein myself and WineChap contributor Zachary Sussman will be sailing a figurative tall ship around the world—possibly battling scurvy, mutiny, and dysentery—to chart some of the finest regions for value wines. This week: Hautes-Côtes de Nuits & Côtes de Nuits Villages.

We like to think of Hautes-Côtes de Nuits and Côte de Nuits Villages as Burgundy’s slightly awkward teenagers. Less sophisticated than the region’s fancier appellations, but generally more “grown up” than the average “Bourgogne,” these easily ignored wines aren’t quite sure where they fit in. And we have to admit, it can’t always be easy living in the shadows of Chambolle or Gevrey.

Located in the rustic hillsides just outside the famed borders of the Côtes de Nuits, the Hautes-Côtes appellation encompasses a smattering of nineteen different villages, none of which qualifies to bottle under its own name. Due to the relatively high altitude in which the vines are planted, these eager little Nuits are literally late bloomers, whose grapes often struggle to ripen as fully as some of their peers. Such “growing pains” aside, in strong vintages the wines fill out robustly, and, with prices rarely exceeding thirty bucks, represent one of Burgundy’s great simple pleasures.

Unlike the peripheral Haut-Côtes designation, Côte de Nuits Villages finds its home within the official slope of the Côte De Nuits. An intermediary between regional “Bourgogne” and more refined village-named wines, the appellation applies to vines sourced from five of the area’s admittedly less-exalted communes: Fixin and Brochon in the north, and Comblanchien, Corgoloin and Prissey to the south. Typically a bit more serious than Haut-Côte juice, if slightly pricier, at their best they manage to take on some of the qualities that make the Côte de Nuits terra sacra for all true Pinot fiends.

Although Pinot Noir has a virtual monopoly Côte de Nuits, no account of these wines would be complete without mentioning that it’s definitely worth seeking out the miniscule quantities of white produced in each area, based entirely (as with almost all white Burgundy) upon Chardonnay.

We recently took a handful of bottles for a quick test spin. If you’ve had experience with any of these wines, be sure to let us know your thoughts.

Hautes-Côte De Nuits Blanc 2004, Meo Camuzet

Park Avenue Liquors, $25.00
Dear Reader, we owe you an apology. After tasting this wine from the renowned Meo-Camuzet estate, we instantly bought up every last bottle. Leave it to Meo to produce the one white in the lineup that that flat-out embarrassed its red brethren on their home turf. Located in the Côte de Nuits commune of Flagey-Echezeaux, this single-vineyard bottling is classified as mere Hautes-Côtes, but in the glass it’s classic white Burg at its best: exquisite delicacy, Meursault-like richness, and a mineral core that sent us dancing into the streets. Recent vintages are still available, so please accept our Meo-culpa and keep your eyes peeled!

Côte de Nuits-Villages “Clos de Magny” 2007, Jean Fery

Chambers Street Wines, $28.99
Here’s a bottle sourced from sixty-year-old vines located in a vineyard that dates back to 900 AD. What more could you want from a wine at this level? It perfectly embodies the ethos of this column: undeniable Burgundian character, an irony richness strong enough to cure anemia, and sufficient structure to last a few years in the cellar. By importing this bottle directly from the estate, legendary Tribeca retailer Chambers Street Wines keeps the price enticingly low.

Hautes-Côtes de Nuits 2006, St. Lion

Chelsea Wine Vault, $17.99
For a random négociant bottle whose label looks like something you’d spot on a Costco shelf, this entry surprised us with its unusual balance, boasting simple yet pretty fruit and enough acidity to keep things lively. No major flaws, which is more than some red Burg at this price can say for itself. If we were stranded at a family reunion in Peoria and this was the only pour by the glass, we wouldn’t turn our noses.

Hautes-Côtes de Nuits “Cuvée Prestige” 2006, Jean-Philippe Marchand

67 Wine and Spirits, $23.99
Aromatically complex, with that barnyard “bah-bah blackberry” quality we love in Pinot’s more rustic incarnations. But alas, the wine does show its vintage; the acidity lags on the finish. This is still an excellent effort and a stellar deal at less than $25.

Hautes-Côtes de Nuits “Le Prieureé” 2006, Domaine Aurélien Verdet

Sherry-Lehmann, $26.95
When we were little, our diabetic grandmother always left a scalloped glass bowl of sugar-free candies out on her coffee table. We didn’t like the candies then, nor do we enjoy their taste replicated in this wine today. Even forgiving the warm vintage, this comes across as surprisingly chemical and saccharine, especially for a producer who claims to farm as organically as possible with minimal manipulation in the cellar. Fine for diabetic grannies, but we’ll have to pass.

Côte-de-Nuits Villages 2007, Domaine Sylvie Esmonin

Chambers Street Wines, $27.99
This bottle seems to have been a victim of reduction; the nose was all sulfur and baked fruit and did not diffuse over the first couple hours. On day two the reductive odors blew off, but the wine was still clunky and unbalanced. A disappointing effort from a producer that can make some interesting--but characteristically brawny--wines.

-Zachary Sussman

Our continuing effort to assist our hard working colleagues in the trade, more posts currently available in some of London’s top restaurants:

1. China Tang The Dorchester
Looking for a Sommelier, send your CV to Igor Sotric isotric@ChinaTangLondon.co.uk

2. Frederick’s www.fredericks.co.uk
Looking for a Sommelier, send your CV to Piero Di Giacomo manager@federicks.co.uk

3. Apsleys a Heinz Beck Restaurant The Lanesborough www.apsleys.co.uk
Looking for a Sommelier, send your CV to apsleys @lanesborough.com

4. Maze Gordon Ramsay www.gordonramsay.com
Looking for a Commis Sommelier and a Sommelier, send your CV to Laure Patry laurepatry@gordonramsay.com

With thanks to Andrea Rinaldi -www.uksommelier.com - for keeping us in the loop.

Welcome to this week’s  heavy duty BTG line up from Mr. Madrigale at Bar Boulud. Please be reminded that almost all of these wines are being poured at wholesale pricing and alone deserve a pilgrimage. This week’s kaboom: ‘01 Palacios Priorat Les Terrasses; ‘03 H. Lignier Morey St. Denis 1er Cru; ‘89 maltroye Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru; ‘93 Mas Jullien; and more.

Tuesday, August 24th—1996 Vosne-Romanee 1er Cru Beaux Monts, Daniel Rion (Magnum)

Wednesday, August 25th—2001 Priorat “Les Terrasses”, Alvaro Palacios (Magnum)

Thursday, August 26th—2003 Morey St Denis 1er Cru “Vieilles Vignes” Hubert Lignier (Magnum)

Friday, August 27th—1989 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru Clos de Chateau de la Maltroye, Chateau Maltroye  (Magnum)

Saturday, August 28th—1997 Savigny-Les-Beaune 1er Cru “Aux Vergelesses” Simon Bize (Magnum)

Sunday, August 29th--1993 Coteaux du Languedoc  “Les Cailloutis” Mas Jullien (Magnum)

Monday, August 30th—2007 Riesling Smaragd “Klaus” Weingut Prager (Magnum)

This week’s wine o’clock news is more a roundup of some of the spectacular offers available in London at the moment and a bit of shameless promotion for our buddies (in our defence, we will not plug anything we don’t personally rate…)

• 1 Lombard Street, in collaboration with Jazz FM, will soon be showcasing a plethora of world-class jazz musicians.  The city restaurant will be running a series of intimate Saturday evening performances throughout September; launching with leading vocalist Anita Wardell on Saturday 4 September and closing on Saturday 2 October with male vocalist Atila entertaining diners with songs from the legendary Johnny Mercer.  More details can be found here

• We love Bob Bob Ricard, perhaps partially because we had a little hand in their winelist we can say categorically that it is super-shiny and great.  If that is not enough of a reason to send you stampeding their way then their superlative caviar deal absolutely should be.  For a limited time Bob Bob is offering a fantastic lunchtime deal – caviar, vodka and pelmeni or vareniki for under £20, we recommend picking a day when you probably don’t need to get back to the office!  Find out more here

• Galvin at Windows are offering a chance to try some fabulous fine wines, from August 16th – 27th, Monday – Thursday, general manager Fred Sirieix will select a bottle of wine from the restaurant’s cellar, which will be opened at 8pm for customers to try on a first come first served basis; for reservations in the bar or restaurant, or to find out the wine of the day call 0207 208 4021.

• And finally: if you have utterly caved to Steve Jobs, like us, and now cannot live without your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch the multitudes of apps are both intoxicating and overwhelming – we will periodically try and give you an insight into the apps we can’t live without:  First up - http://www.corkbin.com/ a rather neat application for keeping track of your imbibing.  We’ve just downloaded it and will keep you posted, but so far it seems like a simple and handy tool.

“Want to build your wine knowledge quickly and effectively?
Looking for a wine course that combines serious learning with serious fun and idyllic luxury?”

Chene Bleu’s Extreme Wine is to residential wine courses what Faberge is to eggs:

It doesn’t require a specific level of wine knowledge as is as demanding for novice and connoisseur alike.  Attendees are bonded by a love of wine and a similar attitude towards life, which demands the ultimate experience and is prepared for the rigour required to achieve it.

(NB – Everything about the experience at La Verriere is of extreme quality – including the food, accommodation and of course the wines tasted WHICH alone, amount to the same value as the per person cost!)

CLICK HERE to find out more about Extreme wine with Chene Bleu.

Ever keen to support our hard working colleagues in the trade, below is today’s list of currently available sommelier posts in some of London’s top rezzers.

1. Locanda Locatelli www.locandalocatelli.com

Looking for a commis sommelier, send your CV to Virgilio Gennaro virgiliobar78bar@yahoo.it

2. La Petite Maison www.lpmlondon.co.uk

Looking for a Sommelier, send your CV to Alessandro Marchesan alessandro@zumarestaurant.com

3. L’ Anima www.lanima.co.uk

Looking for a commis Sommelier, send your CV to Fernando Marques fernando.marques@lanima.co.uk

4. Clos Maggiore www.closmaggiore.com

Looking for waiters/waitresses, send your CV to Christopher Cooper  sommelier@closmaggiore.com

Do get in touch with them if interested or spread the word if you know someone suitable.

Hello and welcome to our newest monthly WineChap feature wherein one of our correspondents will be dropped off in an unfamiliar neighborhood and left to profile the area’s wine bar offerings. This month we leave Sarah Chappell stranded in the West Village. Coming Soon: East New York, Spanish Harlem, and Tribeca.

Blue Ribbon Downing Street Bar | 34 Downing Street

This small 18-seater is frequently standing room only, but the French oak panels and industrially-hip exposed Edison bulbs make for a comfortable—if cramped—experience. A mix of neighborhood types, post-service restaurant workers, and wine nerds swarm the bar for the selection of over 30 wines-by-the-glass. An impressive half-bottle selection makes it easy to try Biale’s Black Chicken Zinfandel without disintegrating your bank account.

For those who prefer a more didactic approach, a rotating list of three tasting flights is a foolproof way to self-educate. We particularly like the flight of off-dry Rieslings from three different producers that use grapes from the Wehlener Sonnenuhr vineyard; pair it with the excellent salty-sweet goodness that is the Manchego cheese and honey toasts to maximize the Riesling-esque effect of acid and sugar coming together to make the perfect summer quaff.

The Blue Ribbon team has worked together to create a list that has something for everyone, even if it’s something you didn’t even know you wanted. Take the Vevi “Dordo 1954” NV Rueda Verdejo for example; it’s made in the style of Sherry and aged via the solera system, and you may not know this yet, but trust us: you want it.

Insider Intel: Bottles in red are discounted 20-30%
What to drink: Rosé, Dei-sec, Bugey-Cerdon NV, Lingot Martin $15/gl; Viognier VdP de l’Ardeche 2009, Paul Vendran $15/gl; Pineau d’Aunis “La Verre des Poètes” 2006, Domaine de Montrieux $42/btl.

Anfora | 34 8th Avenue

Anfora is surprisingly large for a wine bar, its inner sanctum punctuated by low-slung purple leather banquettes that bring to mind MePa boozing rather than W. Vill sipping. While the cozy lounge atmosphere is a lovely waiting place for those dining at the sibling next door—dell’anima—the list of natural wines is a draw for local wine nerds as well.

Joe Campanale, Beverage Director of this mini-empire (West Village destination L’Artusi is also part of the family), has infused the list with his considerable knowledge and organized the wines by producer rather than grape variety or region. Each producer page comes complete with a Wine 201 excerpt that forces you, the drinker, to use your brain before numbing it.

Get prepped for some schooling and taste the namesake wines of the bar: anfora aged wines. According to Campanale, anfora, or amphorae, are large clay pots that were used to store wine in the days of the Greek and Roman empires, and they’ve recently come back into fashion as a way to connect with history, to drink what the antediluvians used to drink. One of our favorites is the 2007 Cantina Giardino “Sophia,” which smells like a Petri dish from bio class and tastes like your first dorm room homebrewing attempt that failed to carbonate, except in a good way.

What to drink: Coda di Volpe ‘Sophia’ 2007, Cantina Giardino $56/btl; Rosé ‘Ko’ 2009, Thierry Puzelat $10; Rioja Gran Reserva Rosado “Tondonia” Lopez de Heredia 2000 $15/gl; Cornellissen “Rosso del Contadino 6” NV $68/btl; anything from Laureano Serres.

The Upholstery Store | 713 Washington Street

Like the railroad style apartment that you convinced yourself to take because of the high ceilings, The Upholstery Store is a better idea in theory. As a spot to grab a drink pre- or post-dinner, the bar is fine. A back room with the illusion of privacy is a saving grace, complete with a cute city view of their garden/outdoor storage space. Snacks from next door sister spot Wallsé help keep the drinks flowing, and the fact that the glasses are no longer doll-sized help you forget that the space was probably better off as an actual upholstery store.

The wine list isn’t particularly inspiring—despite a few fun twists, like a $9 glass of 2007 Syrocco Syrah from Morocco—but it’s definitely a space to keep an eye on. Come September, Wallsé’s Beverage Director, Leo Schneeman, will unveil a new list that promises a heavy focus on high-end back vintage Austrian wines; this promise, if kept, may make this a spot well worth the elbowing you’ll have to do to get yourself settled in for the evening.

What to drink: Riesling Schieferterrassen 2006, Heymann Lowenstein $12/60; Syrah ‘Syrocco’ 2007, Thalvin $9/45.

Aria | 117 Perry Street

The white tile bar, massive chalkboards, and meat hanging from the ceiling make this bright space a comfortable spot to grab a drink or quick bite with the illusion of dining outdoors. The wine selection features some of the wine world’s finest female vintners; in fact, all of the wines on the list are produced by ladies, including 15 that can be purchased by the “ombre” (a tiny glass) to pair with the large collection of Venetian tapas called “chicchetti.” Considering the all-female roster, we have to say that we did expect a bit more from the selection, which seems to make the mistake of putting the concept before the wines, even when it doesn’t have to. That is, the list could stand to include more pioneering ladies such as Arianna Occhipinti, Patricia Greene, Gaetana Jacono (of Valle dell’Acate), Cathy Corison, María José López de Heredia, and Jutta Ambrositsch—just to name a few—but instead, the by-the-glass list focuses on inexpensive wines from Chile and South Africa, and the rest of the list doesn’t do the concept any justice. In short, if you’re visiting for the wine selection, you’re better off walking 5 more blocks to Anfora.

Lelabar | 422 Hudson Street

Lelabar’s Beverage Director, Madeline Maldonado, hails from Tinto Fino, the pocket-sized all-Spanish wine store in the East Village, but here she’s stepped outside of Spain to offer wines from the U.S., Rhône, and beyond, all with a focus on classical wines from the Old World with the occasional quirky artisan wine thrown in. But Lelabar sets itself apart from the slew of other EV wine bars with this simple offering: for any bottle of wine not available by the glass, if you purchase two glasses, they will open the bottle.

Jazz concerts, beer tastings, and $1 oyster nights bring out a diverse local and post-work crowd, and with every wine essentially available by the glass, this is the place for that potentially awkward second date—dark enough that you can’t see each other, loud enough that you don’t have to talk, and boozy enough that, well…you know.

What to drink: Penedes Moscatel/Grenache Blanc 2006 $12/42; Ribeira Sacra “Pena do Lobo” 2008, D. Ventura $65.

After our brief stay in St Emilion we headed up to Cognac to check out Remy Martin’s Louis XIII Connoisseur Experience. At the Estate we paired up Remy’s XO with Foie Gras and later blue cheese, chilled the VSOP to serve with Smoked Salmon Blinis, and sampled the rare ’88 Vintage (‘more monotonal but more visceral than the XO, a Picasso to the latter’s multi-layered Rembrandt oil’).

After an evening stroll around the town of Cognac, which late-60’s timewarp recalls Bulawayo, we enjoyed dinner at the family’s Chateau Le Grollet’ in the Cognac countryside, we visited the famed Louis XIII cellar and tasted this £80 a sip brandy from barrel.  The next morning we enjoyed an instructive Tasting of Grande Champagne cognacs destined for this top bottling with maitre de chai Pierette Trichet – still Cognac’s only female cellarmaster and afterwards lunch where during an interview we discussed our respective hopes and ambitions for the future:

Tom:  ‘To find the perfect Dry Martini and write the unwritten Flashman episodes’

Pierette:  ‘To pass on my knowledge and the library of fine cognacs to a successor and then enjoy a pilgrimage to St James of Compostella’

Boo:  ‘To brush my teeth’

Tips for Cognac: -

Rendevouz Remy Martin offers a number of Cognac Discovery Programmes – the pinnacle being the half or full-day Louis XIII Connoisseur Experience.  More details are available from www.visitesremymartin.com

Mme Coates’ Les Tilleuls, 98 av Paul Firino Martell, 33 (0)5 45 35 03 12 offers charming lodgings (2 rooms only) - the Grande Champagne suite is capacious and The Petite Champagne room below is more than adequate for driver/valet/pilot/Boo etc.