If the Loire Valley only had its lovely vistas, byways, and chateaux, it would be blessed enough. But the region, halfway between Paris and Bordeaux, also has white, red, and sparkling wines of great variety and easy quaffing. The only problem is that, due to a myriad of small growers and confusing appellations, the Loire’s best values can be hard to pinpoint. For expert advice in buying and enjoying Loire wines, my advice is to head to Chambers Street Wines in TriBeCa, the city’s reigning specialist in this region. There, under the high ceilings of a former firehouse, you’ll find more than 60 different Loire wines. Each has been hand-picked by David Lillie, the shop’s coproprietor. Mr. Lillie, a dour-looking man of 55, doesn’t say much – until the topic turns to his favorite wines. The man is a Loire freak.

The wines of Bordeaux and Burgundy, even the Rhone, are far more renowned. What is it about these from the Loire that Mr. Lillie loves? “My wife and I first started drinking Loire reds on a trip to the region in 1979,” he said, “and I just liked them immediately. They had this good acidity, which went great with food And then I got on to the whites. They have minerality, a taste of their earth, which makes them more interesting than just plain fruitiness.”

In Mr. Lillie’s early years of chasing Loire wines, 25 years ago, he was a saxophonist and jazz band manager and Loire wines had one other important attribute: “They were inexpensive,” he says. “Price was very important to a musician on a tight budget.”

The Loire’s banner-carrying whites, Pouilly Fume and Sancerre, tend to be fully priced. But most other Loire wines remain a good-to-great value. It’s hard to find a $10 white with more scintillation than Chambers Street’s Muscadet from Domaine de la Pepiere. Mr. Lillie calls it “the ultimate fish wine.”

Savennieres, a little-known but strong-boned white from Anjou, can hold its own with the greats of Burgundy at a fraction of their price. It takes around eight years for a steely Savennieres to open up its glories. Try Chateau d’Epire 2000, Cuvee Speciale ($14.99), for an introduction to this wine, though it will only get better.

As for those food-friendly reds, there are scads of them. Chinon, Borgueil, and Saint Nicolasde-Borgueil, all bistro bedrocks, are among the best known. All are made from cabernet franc, a grape that is subsidiary most everywhere else. If less than fully ripe, “cab franc” can taste like bell pepper juice has been squeezed into it. Fully ripe, the same grape is all plums and currants.

Mr. Lillie was a manager at Garnet Wines, the Upper East Side wine hotspot, for 15 years as his musical career wound down. “Many ex-musicians are in the wine business,” he said. “Garnet gave me the chance to bring in lots of Loire wines.”

Mr. Lillie and his partner, Jamie Wolff, formerly a rare-wine specialist at Sotheby’s, opened their shop at 160 Chambers Street in June 2001. Three months later, the fledgling business, along with the rest of Lower Manhattan, lay in tatters. “For a while, people were permitted to walk on the north side of Chambers Street,” Mr. Lillie said, “but not the south side, where we are. I was afraid we were going to lose the business.”

Messrs. Lillie and Wolff had to borrow money, but they hung in. Chambers Street Wines, through its witty, freewheeling Web site, www.chambersstwines.com, now attracts a nationwide following. Its bedrock clientele, though, is still local. “We have individualistic customers down here in TriBeCa,” Mr. Lillie said. “They tend to rely on our recommendations rather than on Robert Parker points” – a reference to the powerful, Maryland-based wine rater. For collectors of auction grade wines, such as choice vintages of Burgundy or Barolo, Mr. Wolff is the man to see.

A Loire oddity you’d have trouble finding even at Sotheby’s but that is on the shelf at Chambers Street is a 1989 Muscadet from Luneau Papin ($21.99) – a wine normally drunk as young as possible. Mr. Lillie said that this wine is “sensational” and capable of further aging.