Treats in the cellar: Vouvray, Chablis, Bordeaux, Piedmont and Hermitage

After years of hearing about all the festivation going on deep in the bowels of Chelsea Wine Storage between my numerous friends that store their wines there, I finally made it to one of their gatherings and was astounded by the illuminati present. There was Joe Dougherty digging through the cages for delectable Vouvray to open, Manuel Camblor, his visit to NYC the real reason for this gathering , arrived brightly shirted. Jay Miller, Jeff Grossman, Sharon Bowman are all there as are John Morris and Ray DeAngelo. Is that a monkey swinging in the rafters? No! It's the wiry Sasha Katsman slinging cases around at the upper heights of his wine wing with his friend Alex. Even Guilaume Gerard made an appearance with his entirely too adorable little boy, Louis.

Plenty of wines were opened and tasty treats were brought by all. I didn't try everything, choosing instead to focus on fewer bottles.

• 1972 Domaine Jaboulet-Vercherre Corton-Clos du Roi

  France, Burgundy, Côte de Beaune, Corton Grand Cru

  A much fresher bottle than the one Jay opened last month and from the same auction lot. Jay waxed poetic about the nose, but I merely found it pleasant, showing typically old wine aromas of rust, leather, orange citrus and dried strawberries and cherries. There's a nice smokiness on the palate with a surprisingly intact core of strawberry and cherry fruit along with leather and bark elements. Drying out a bit and certainly old, but there's a nice tart red fruit crunch on the finish. Low B, though I seemed to like this less than a number of folks.

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• 2002 Vincent Dauvissat (René & Vincent) Chablis 1er Cru La Forest

  France, Burgundy, Chablis, Chablis 1er Cru

  I was odd man out again with this one as I found very light hints of oxidation present, but only one other person agreed with me. There's a nice saline quality to the wine and expressive minerality on the back end, but there's a touch more wood than I prefer and I found it hard to look past what I found to be oxidative notes. B-.

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• 1956 Domaine Huet Vouvray Sec Le Haut-Lieu

  France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Vouvray

  My second try with this wine and it remains a tough one to love. From a difficult vintage and it shows. It wasn't revealing all that much on the nose, though some rot and quince were present. It was much more open on the palate where it revealed a disconcerting and rather off putting bad oyster note that's tough to work through. There's some quince and yellow citrus with bright acids, but the wine just isn't that generous and that spoiled shellfish character just really ruins it for me. Manuel described it as first being head butted and then kissed by a woman and I had to add, "yeah, with bad breath" to make it more accurate. C+/C.

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• 1953 Domaine Huet Vouvray Demi-Sec Le Mont

  France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Vouvray

  A beautiful bottle and showing just a bit more freshness and sweetness than a bottle three years ago. There's wonderful harmony and balance here with a classic profile of apricots, pineapples, quince paste, orange citrus and earl grey tea flavors and aromas. Granted, it's from a better vintage, but with 22 more years on it, it had retained its sugar more than a '75 demi-sec had earlier this past week. Picks up some nice minerality on the finish, but this is a fruit forward, nicely honeyed wine that, while drinking perfectly now, has much more mileage on it before it reaches any proverbial cliff. A/A-.

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• 2010 Caves Duplessis Chablis 1er Cru Montée de Tonnerre

  France, Burgundy, Chablis, Chablis 1er Cru

  Fresh and lean with apple, citrus, oyster shell and mineral flavors and aromas. It's bracing and focused with fine acids and light petillance that dissipated with air. It doesn't show much in the way of oak, which is a good thing and the minerality on the finish is quite nice. Low B+.

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• 1995 Comm. G.B. Burlotto Barolo Monvigliero

  Italy, Piedmont, Langhe, Barolo

  Forthcoming and quite attractive on the nose with fresh strawberry, cherry, black olive, licorice and spice aromas. There's beautiful purity and focus to the fruit and the palate shows a similar flavor profile as expressed on the nose in a nicely old school way. The structure is rather tough, however with typical '95 austerity. It could definitely still use some more time to soften up, but I'm willing to bet there'll always be a toughness to this wine. A-/B+.

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• 2001 Tenute Sella Lessona

  Italy, Piedmont, Northern Piedmont, Lessona

  Nicely aromatic and showing black and red fruit on the palate with licorice, spice and irony/mineral notes. Still a bit chunky and coarse with some aggressiveness to the structure. Needs food. B+.

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• 2003 Domaine Huet Vouvray Demi-Sec Non Greffé Le Haut-Lieu

  France, Loire Valley, Touraine, Vouvray

  My first taste of this rare bottling made from ungrafted vines. Apparently, only about 3/4 of an acre were planted, they're relatively youngish vines and only two vintages were bottled, 2002 and 2003. It shows the vintage's heat with its plump and ripe character. It definitely could use some more acidity to help even out the pear, quince and yellow apple compote that shows moderate sweetness. There are more phenolics in this wine than I've noticed in other demi-secs from this time at Huet and the wine shows nice depth and a surprising amount of mineral on the finish with a touch of a pleasant bitterness. B+.

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• 1996 Château Pontet-Canet

  France, Bordeaux, Médoc, Pauillac

  Probably should've given this more air as it initially showed nothing but green aromas and flavors with plenty of bitter wood notes and not much else. However, by the end of the afternoon the green had receded and black cherry, cedar and earth notes started to come out. still, there's more toast here than I'd prefer and the wine seems a little soulless. Will have to give it a serious decant next time. B/B+.

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• 1995 Domaine de Chevalier

  France, Bordeaux, Graves, Pessac-Léognan

  Lean and graceful, but it could certainly use more fruit. It's true to its style in that regard and with its elevated acid levels. There's some green pepper present with beef blood, a hint of coffee, earth, leather and tart red fruit. Needed red meat which we didn't have and this is very clearly a Burgundy lover's Bordeaux. B+/B.

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• 1995 Paul Jaboulet Aîné Hermitage La Chapelle

  France, Rhône, Northern Rhône, Hermitage

  Typically lovely on the nose with spicy red berry fruit, garrigue, olive, licorice and meat profile. However, also typical, to my tastes, in that the palate rarely lives up to the nose. The wine's lean with elevated acid levels and much less fruit than the nose would suggest would be present, but still shows a classic Syrah profile with a nice garrigue flourish on the finish. B+.

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