Adding touches of art to your wine cellar can enhance not only your experience retrieving wines or managing your inventory by making your cellar a more welcoming place. But art can also help you create a tasting room or a special space where you may bring valued guests to share your wine enthusiasm. Art may also help increase your property's value.

Nothing says summer time like boiled lobster and drawn butter. IntoWine.com asked our panel of wine experts to recommend the best wines to pair with boiled lobster: This is such a rare , special occasion dish for me that my initial inclination is that the wine has to be something special as well. For the richness and delicacy of lobster, I can’t imagine anything better than Burgundy’s greatest white wine—the world’s most magnificent rendition of Chardonnay—a Montrachet. The wines from this Grand Cru vineyard are very expensive, but if the occasion for a treat like lobster is a best friend or spouse’s milestone birthday, then why not pull out the world’s best white wine to celebrate as well? On a similarly celebratory note, a bottle of Krug Champagne and lobster would make for a very memorable occasion too.

With the economy in the gutter wine enthusiasts are on the lookout for exceptional wines for a good price with which they can sip away the summer. IntoWine.com asked our panel of wine experts to recommend the best sauvignon blanc "value" wines: Sauvignon Blanc is widely planted around the world, and there are many great examples. Not surprisingly, the best values in terms of quality and price—terrific wines for under $20--can be found in the several regions that specialize in Sauvignon Blanc: New Zealand, Chile’s Limari Valley and California’s Dry Creek Valley in Sonoma County. I am also including some great values from another up and coming region for Sauv Blanc—California’s Santa Barbara County. Unfortunately, I can’t find anything that I’ve rated 91 points or higher that is under $20 from the other great region known for Sauvignon Blanc, France’s Loire Valley. The absolute stars of this category, for both value and quality, averaging $12 each from U.S. retailers, are three Sauvignon Blancs hailing from New Zealand—the country where Sauv Blanc is the most heavily planted grape, by far—and one from Chile. The NZ choices are Makara Wines and Villa Maria Private Bin, both from Marlborough, and Wither Hills of Wairau Valley. The Chilean value is Tabali’s Reserva Especial. For a little more money, but still under $20, check out these great buys, taking in California high performers, as well as more from New Zealand. At an average of $14, Stoneleigh from NZ’s Marlborough and Woolaston from NZ’s Nelson region. For $15, look for Dry Creek Vineyard’s stainless steel fermented Sauv Blanc, The Girls in the Vineyard from Lake County, and Mt Beautiful from NZ’s Canterbury region. At $17, I recommend Saint Clair Family Estate from Marlborough, one of my highest rated Sauv Blancs last year; Mauritson Wines Dry Creek Valley; Rusack and Lincourt, both from Santa Barbara’s Santa Ynez Valley; and Man O’ War from NZ’s Waiheke Island. At the upper end of my value recommendations at $18, but still incredible deals for the quality, are Huia and Loveblock from Marlborough, and Star Lane from Santa Barbara’s Happy Canyon region. Richard Jennings, IntoWine.com Featured Contributor and the Founder RJonWine.com.

Wine cellars don't have to be dark catacombs in the basement. With some stylish designer touches, you can make the place your store your wine a welcoming additional living space in your home. You can add art, custom design, and personal touches to your wine cellar. They can become tasting rooms that are also temperature and humidity controlled environments to store and age your wine.

Helping homeowners and wine connoisseurs create beautiful and tasteful wine cellars is Bob Guillen's passion. As a designer and outside representative for Wine Cellar Innovations in Cincinnati, Ohio, Guillen knows construction and has an outstanding eye for style.

The Jumilla DO has turned potential disaster into triumph. In 1989 – long after most Spanish wine growers had encountered phylloxera, lost nearly everything, and replanted – the insect finally arrived in Jumilla, with predictable results. As phylloxera spread, grapevines succumbed, and Jumilla's growers had to make some hard choices.

In the northwest corner of Italy is the Aosta Valley. The region, known in Italy as Valle d’Aosta, borders France to the west, Switzerland to the north and the region of Piemonte to the south and east. This Aosta Valley is a part of the Alps mountain range. The Valley first was inhabited by the Celts around 900 B.C. The Romans moved thru around 25 B.C naming the land after Augusta. Today, Valle D’Aosta is better known as a tourist destination for hikers and skiers.

So, you’ve decided to make some wine. You know what variety you want to try, and where you want to make it, but you’re not sure what equipment you will need or how to go about finding it. The basic necessities of winemaking are not hard to come by, but establishing a sanitary environment and anticipating potential problems is where setting up a micro-winery can get tricky.

Last month I wrote about the “Super Marches” wines from Le Marche. I realize that I have yet to discuss the granddaddy of all the “Super” wines; Super Tuscans. Tuscany has a long history of making great indigenous wines. See previous articles on Chianti , Brunello and Vin Santo . It is also home to some of the best internationally styled wines which are known collectively as Super Tuscans. So just what is a Super Tuscan? There really are no hard and fast rules. First and foremost, the term generally refers to red wines from Tuscany that do not conform to any DOC(G) regulations. They are released as IGT wines or even Vino de Tavola (VdT) or table wine. Beyond that, it is a term more of marketing than art or science.

The Rhone Report: About Rhone and Rhone-Style Wines and Winemakers is part of an ongoing series. Last month we reported on American Rhone-style wines we tasted at the 16th annual Hospice du Rhone events in Paso Robles, California from May 1 to 3, 2008. We noted that this event was an opportunity to consider Rhone-style wines from a fresh perspective because, unlike most tasting opportunities, these events included Rhone-style wines from the Rhone Valley itself (51 wineries), elsewhere in France (4 wineries) as well as from Spain (4 wineries), Australia (17 wineries), South Africa (6 wineries), Chile (2 wineries), Argentina (1 winery) and the United States. While this was a California-dominated event, and while many of the Rhone Valley’s best producers weren’t represented, there was still sufficient European and other entries to make for interesting comparisons and contrasts.