The company is led by the husband and wife team of Marc and Katherine Lazar.  With their expertise in wine valuations, appraisals, acquisitions and liquidations honed at Cellar Advisors, they opened their first facility in St. Louis in 2005.  Facilities in Chicago and New York followed, as the couple and their team proved that the defining element in the storage business is first-class service and amenities.  Last year Domaine acquired The Noble Vine, a wine consulting firm in the DC area.  The owner of The Noble Vine, Justin Connor, joined the firm as a partner and will oversee all of Domaine’s facilities.  I had the pleasure of tasting an assortment of exceptional wines with Justin last week at the Heart’s Delight Wine Tasting and Auction.  He is a refreshingly gracious and energetic young man who also has the knowledge of someone who has been collecting wine for a lifetime.

Katherine Lazar spoke with me about  the range of services they plan to offer DC oenophiles, and I am convinced they will be able to satisfy even the most discerning collector.  “Even if you are not a Domaine client we can help to make your wine life easier by assisting with its associated logistics.  We manage hundreds of shipments/thousands of cases of wine per year in refrigerated trucks across the country.  This includes consolidation with others on the west coast before shipping to the east, moving a few cases to your home or storage facility after an auction or sale, or moving an entire collection.   If needed, we can even send a team out with boxes to pack the shipment so that the client does not have to worry about it,” said Katherine.

The facility will offer state-of-the-art environmental controls, including redundant cooling and back-up power systems to ensure ideal conditions for collections of all shapes and sizes.  The experienced staff will incorporate CellarTracker for inventory management, allowing members to view acquisitions in real time via web and smartphone apps.  Larger collections will be kept in lockers, and clients will have options for different racking systems which can be completely customized.

Though the weather has been phenomenal so far this year in DC, the dog days of summer are soon upon us.  If your wine is facing another summer in a warm basement, Domaine is offering pre-opening storage at their New York site and the shipping is complimentary.  They are also offering discounted rates for contracts signed before their doors open.

Just an hour from Washington, North Beach has all you need for a day of fun. The Lighthouse stocks all the beach supplies you need, and Chez Elle offers a dazzling choice of smart women’s clothing.

But if you come for fun, you must come for the food, too. A new addition to the town is the Olde Bay Tavern (4114 7th Street, 443-964-5261), a casual place to dine that combines a terrific menu, well-considered wine and beer selections, and an affable environment.

Owners Colleen and Doug McClair spent their careers in computer consulting, dreaming of opening a restaurant but not pulling that string until they created Olde Bay Tavern just a few weeks ago. On my visits, the food has been uniformly terrific, the presentation casual, and the staff welcoming.

The cream of crab soup is chock full of lump crab meat, and the crab cakes are sumptuous. I saw plates of flatbread, club sandwiches, and pulled pork that looked delicious. For a special treat, try Olde Bay’s own version of surf and turf: a burger topped with a crab cake!

It’s no accident that the tavern claims Maryland’s famous spice for its name. A dusting of the famous seasoning appeared on nearly every plate that swung through the dining room.

The wine list is comfortably short, but well thought-out, giving a fair shake to the range of wines required for this menu. The beer list is crafty, and includes many of the specialty beverages we’ve come to expect in fine dining.

Now that Olde Bay Tavern is part of the landscape of this wonderful little town, I have only one question for Colleen and Doug: What took you so long?

Lots of terrific wines were poured last year, and this year many of these gracious winemakers are returning for the event.  Among them Bonny Doon Vineyard, Fess Parker Winery and Cline Cellars.  Newcomers include Stolpman Vineyards, Veritas, and Justin Winery, to name a few.  Look for a recap and a review of the wines in this column after the event.

I’m reminded of the report I once read that said if you spent five minutes on each exhibit in the Smithsonian Institution and worked forty hours a week, you’d never keep up with the constant additions to the museums. The birth and death cycle in the restaurant industry is similar: If you visited one restaurant in the metro area per day, seven days a week, you’d never catch up to the new establishments opening every day.

One that just arrived and is destined to be a huge hit is Seasons 52 (11414 Rockville Pike, North Bethesda, 301-984-5252). It’s part of a chain that began in Orlando and has since taken the restaurant business by storm.

Seasons 52 is unquestionably the most gorgeous restaurant in the Maryland suburbs. The dining room and bar flaunt a Frank Lloyd Wright-influenced design, airy spaces and tasteful yet discrete design elements dress up the dining area, and soft lighting offers the final touch. Cozy private rooms dot the perimeter of the estate and expand the breadth of the main dining room.

The bar sweeps gently about in a circle as you enter the room, with a piano man who tickles sweet music from the keys every night. A piano bar! Right in Rockville! (Oh, sorry, North Bethesda.)

So, the question is, could the food match that stupendous atmosphere? Tasting through a number of their dishes proved that the cuisine – and sommelier George Miliotes’ ingenious wine list – is actually more breath-taking than the romantic surroundings, if that’s possible.  The seasonally-inspired menu takes its cue from healthy eating and sustainable provisions (no menu item is more than 475 calories!!) but this is a nutritionist’s dream. The organic salmon and roasted lemongrass sea scallops were exquisite, and a fine tribute to the mesquite-grilled lamb t-bone chop and quail breast with bourbon-chili glaze. And in the face of such competition, the Sonoma goat cheese ravioli with roasted garlic, basil and tomato broth – brilliantly served with a Retromarcia Chianti Classico – was the highlight of the evening.

Seasons 52 is opening April 11, 2011, and will set a new – and very high bar – for dining in Maryland.

After sitting down to platters of caprese salad, fritto misto, and chacuterie, the reds were poured.  The 2008 Secco-Bertani is a blend vinified by Bertani for over 150 years.  Made in the Ripasso style of 3 varietals (Corvina, Rondinella and Molinara)  from Valpoicella Valpentana, this red was both complex and youthful.  With notes of hazelnut and cloves, contemporary flavors married with Old World craftsmanship.  Paired with fusilli pasta with sausage, mushrooms and a truffled cream sauce followed by a grilled veal chop, these wines could have written the book on why food and wine were made for each other.

As much as I enjoyed the Ripasso, it was out-gunned by Amarone della Valpolicella from 2003, 1998, 1980 and 1967.  When a snapshot of time like this is poured, one can learn a lot before the first sip.  I sniffed, swirled and sniffed, over and over again, up and down the line while contemplating the similarities and differences.  I expected far greater differences in color, and was surprised by the older vintages’ youthful red appearance.

Tasting these Amarones was like hanging out with four generations of male family members, spanning from toddler to great-grand father.  All were cut from the same stock and shared the tell-tale physical features that are passed on from one family member to the next.   With the exception of the 1998, one can easily see the lineage, which was why this tasting was a bit misleading.  The ’98 was a thoroughbred–a massive, powerful and rock-solid specimen that I kept me wondering until the grilled meat arrived.  The char from the grill grabbed the reigns on this wine and calmed it down for an immensely satisfying ride.  It became a focused stream of young tannins that supported flavors of spice, pepper and raspberry with earthy overtones.

Stefano Mangiarotti and Lead Winemaker Cristian Ridolfi

The 2003 more closely resembled the ’80 and the ’67, which both offered mouthfuls of mature, nutty, mocha and molasses flavors and aromas.  Cristian noted that the 2003 will not likely survive like the ’67, but the ’98 has the potential to last indefinitley due to its muscular structure.    He said that the ’67 had the pedigree of the 98, and it will likely last for decades longer.  Even so, the ‘o3 was a terrific wine combining real finesse with a slightly raisiny texture.

The ’80 was full of cinnamon and caramel, with a whiff of chocolate–its nose gave a clue to its age.  In the other hand, the aromas of tobacco and oloroso coming from the glass of ’67 left no doubt that a distinguished gentleman was in the room.  Both of the elder wines had sweet black fruit and a subtle nuttiness to them.  I could have gone back and forth between the two all afternoon.

One of the writers at the table commented on the high price point of the Amarones.   Personally, if I were out for a special occasion and informed the sommelier that my price range was three digits, I would be very pleased if he returned with one of these wines.  In fact if any wine justifies a high price, the detailed and time-consuming craftsmanship required to produce these wines give them a strong argument.  After harvest, the grapes from the uppermost portions of each cluster are detached by hand and laid out on cane mats to dry.  These grapes will lose half of their water content before extended maceration, fermentation and aging in Slavonan oak casks.  Bertani waited 18 years before even bottling the ’67!  Few wines offer the complete package of history, tradition and terroir, which make these wines a value at any price.

We – the fans – are left on the sidelines to watch. Of course, but that’s not bad considering “sidelines” means a slew of brew pubs in the D.C. area. Two weeks ago, this column featured Rock Bottom Brewery in Bethesda and, last week, The Liberty Tavern in Arlington.

This week, the focus is on the classic capital of regional brew pubs: Capitol City Brewing Company. There are three locations – downtown, Capitol Hill, and Shirlington, Virginia, but the biggest and best is at 1100 New York Avenue, NW (check www.capcitybrew.com for other locations). It has the most seats, the most spacious bar, and enough televisions to handle even an NCAA-size crowd.

The beer selection is broad, including long-time favorites as well as seasonal brews. Like the other brew pubs described in this space, there are beer samplers that will give you a chance to “pour” through the options before settling on a choice for the evening.

Iconic beers – with interesting names – are the draw at Capitol City Brewing Company. Pale Rider Ale is brewed in an American style, while Amber Waves Ale – with its hoppy aromas and malty flavors – is more filling. And then there’s always Prohibition Porter, a dense, dark beer that features roasted coffee and chocolate flavors.

The menu is beer-friendly and includes lots of finger food, perfect for stuffing mouths when they’re not occupied with yelling at the refs. And while the sandwich list offers nothing startlingly new, those that are featured are very good. So when the whistle blows for half-time and you give your brain a break from the court, you can order up a belly-filling meal to go with the beer.

Over the next three weeks, this column will focus on drinks to wash down the throats grown hoarse from shouting at the Madness on television. Whether your team is North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Purdue, or Texas, the games attract thousands to area bars where the competition takes on a party atmosphere.

What better place to begin but at Bethesda’s Rock Bottom Brewery (7900 Norfolk Ave., Bethesda, 20814, 301-652-1311). This is Bethesda’s only brew-in facility – and one of few in the larger D.C. metro area – and it offers an array of beers produced on premises to suit every taste.

The food is straightforward beer-hall fare, including your usual selection of nachos, wings, firecracker shrimp, fish & chips, and steak & fries. But Rock Bottom, which has other locations across the U.S., throws more interesting choices at you, including lobster and shrimp tacos, Creole jambalaya, and asiago artichoke and crab dip. Best of all, the portions are large, large enough to keep you nibbling between excited rants at your team’s missed shots.

The beer’s the thing at Rock Bottom. The brewers are described as “equal parts scientist, artist and beer geek” on the website, which we care less about than that the results are impressive quaffers. Local production includes a range of styles, including light lagers, wheat beers, and a choice of red, brown, or pale ales. Last but not least are the rich, full-bodied dark beers, but choose a steak or beefy burger to go with these monster brews.

A bit of trivia that I bet even the Rock Bottom staff doesn’t know: The brewery is in a building once occupied by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. How do I know? I worked there, and I can promise you there was no beer in the building back then.

But there is now, and the multiple large television screens make this a perfect place to eat, drink, and survive March Madness.

Pairing with wine is less of a challenge than some would think. A quick search of my database suggests pairing lamb with Barbera (rice with lamb ribs); Cru Beaujolais (Moroccan-style lamb shanks), Bordeaux (maple-mustard rack of lamb in my column in The Washington Post, or Middle Eastern Lamb Burger in my column in Chile Pepper Magazine), even a sparkling brut rosé served with marinated baby lamb chops. Depending on the ethnicity of the cuisine, you could serve lamb with a Spanish Crianza, a French Malbec, or a California Muscadet.

But my favorite wine with lamb is the Agiorgitiko, a savory and full-bodied red wine from Greece. Mykonos (121 Congressional Lane, Rockville, 301-770-5999) is a pillar of the Rockville culinary community and a perfect place to prove the perfect marriage of Agiorgitiko with lamb.

Mykonos matches a relaxed environment with white-tablecloth service, and the tile floors, soft floral patterns, and pastel-washed walls can’t help but transport you to the sunny islands of Greece. Once inside, your only challenge is to choose from among a wide array of Greek-inspired dishes, then sit back and let the friendly staff turn your evening into an Hellenic adventure.

I ordered the roasted leg of lamb, a succulent dish served with orzo and brown lamb sauce. The luscious aromas and tender meat made it difficult to put down my fork, but the glass of Agiorgitiko was waiting, and of course, I had to comply.

Hailing from the northeastern Peloponnese, Agiorgitiko ranges from medium- to full-bodied, and is an exquisite partner with deep, earthy flavored meats like lamb and ostrich. As one of Greece’s best vinous products, it is proof positive that the wines of that country deserve much more attention than Americans are giving them.

And with the Mykonos leg of lamb, with its fork-friendly tenderness, the Nemea Agiorgitiko was just the way to make the point.

Vareli’s menu is filled with Mediterranean-style dishes created by chef Amitzur Mor, who emphasizes local, seasonal cuisine and creativity.  Richard Bill offers 20 different wines by the glass, and over 100 different wines by the bottle, most of old-world origin.  He seeks out lesser-known wines that are superbly flavored and balanced and come at very affordable prices.

Drago Centro is an expression of chef/owner Celestino Drago, who uses modern cooking techniques to rediscover classic Italian dishes.  For a restaurant that has received so much national acclaim, the menu prices are astonishingly reasonable.  Sommelier Michael Shearin has managed beverage operations for big players such as Thomas Keller, Tom Colicchio and Guy Savoy.  He is renowned not only for his award-winning wine lists, but also for his ingenious original cocktail concoctions.