The Cellar List

Thin soils, thinner air. These are wines that taste of the cellar they were forgotten in — walnut, brine, cold stone — and they reward the patient drinker above all others.

1. 001 Domaine Berthet-Ravier, Sous VoileglassSavagnin · Arbois 2016 9218 / gl

   Six years beneath the flor and it still arrives bright — bruised apple, green walnut, a saline finish that hangs on far past politeness. Serve at cellar temperature with an aged comté.Tasted 14 March · A. Vireaux

2. 002 Clos de la Fauvette, OuilléChardonnay · Côtes du Jura 2020 68

   Topped-up barrels, so none of the oxidative theatre — instead a taut, chalky Chardonnay with white peach and a faint smoke. The house pour for anyone who claims not to like Jura.Tasted 2 February · A. Vireaux

3. 003 Maison Pérrenoud, Trousseau des CorvéesTrousseau · Arbois-Pupillin 2019 84

   Pale as a Burgundy from a cold year, and just as translucent. Cranberry skin, dried rose, a wisp of woodsmoke. Chill it fifteen minutes; it becomes a different wine entirely.Tasted 30 January · M. Debord

4. 004 Les Gravières Hautes, MacérationglassJacquère · Savoie 2022 5914 / gl

   Eleven days on skins gives it the colour of weak tea and a grip that catches the back of the tongue. Quince, dried thyme, alpine herbs. Drinks like a mountain walk.Tasted 21 April · A. Vireaux

Four hundred miles of river and a different rock every hour. We buy from growers who pick early and intervene late, if at all.

1. 005 Guy Sanceaux, Les PerruchesglassSauvignon Blanc · Sancerre 2023 7616 / gl

   Flint pebbles and grapefruit pith, with none of the gooseberry caricature. Fermented in old oak barrels, which lends a breadth the appellation rarely bothers with anymore.Tasted 9 May · A. Vireaux

2. 006 Domaine du Vieux Pressoir, Sec-TendreChenin Blanc · Vouvray 2018 88

   Barely off-dry — eight grams, invisible against the acid. Bitter almond, chamomile, wet wool. It will outlive most of the people reading this list.Tasted 3 March · M. Debord

3. 007 Marcel Thibaud, Le Clos Rougeard-BasglassCabernet Franc · Saumur-Champigny 2021 7215 / gl

   Graphite, raspberry leaf and a green streak we consider a virtue rather than a flaw. Tannins fine as pencil shading. Ask for it slightly cool.Tasted 18 June · A. Vireaux

4. 008 Ferme des Trois Saules, Peau LongueChenin Blanc · Anjou 2022 64

   A month on skins in clay amphora. Apricot skin, beeswax, a bitter marmalade edge. Cloudy by design — do not send it back.Tasted 11 April · M. Debord

The cellar's deepest corner. We hold these back three years longer than the growers suggest and have never regretted the wait.

1. 009 Cascina Boréa, Bricco VecchioNebbiolo · Barolo 2013 245

   Tar and dried roses, the old cliché, entirely earned. Twelve years in and the tannin has finally unclenched. Decant an hour; drink over three.Tasted 5 December · A. Vireaux

2. 010 Poderi Malvasio, Serralunga AltaglassNebbiolo · Barbaresco 2017 16832 / gl

   A hot vintage handled with restraint. Sour cherry, liquorice root, orange peel. Firmer than its Barolo neighbours tonight but likely to overtake them by 2030.Tasted 5 December · M. Debord

3. 011 Fratelli Ordano, Vigna del FabbroBarbera · Asti 2021 54

   All acid and dark fruit, no oak to muddy it. The bottle we open for ourselves after service. Black plum, violet, a snap of iron.Tasted 27 August · A. Vireaux

4. 012 Tenuta Vallescura, Timorasso AnticaTimorasso · Colli Tortonesi 2019 96

   A grape nearly lost to the twentieth century. Waxy, saline, faintly petrol-tinged with age — closer to Riesling than to anything else in the region.Tasted 16 July · M. Debord

Slopes too severe for machines, worked by hand and by rope. Low in alcohol, endless in length.

1. 013 Weingut Steinhalde, Kabinett Alte RebenglassRiesling · Mosel 2022 6614 / gl

   Seven and a half percent alcohol and more presence than wines at twice the weight. Lime leaf, slate dust, white flowers. The finish keeps going after the glass is down.Tasted 8 June · A. Vireaux

2. 014 Hofgut Rabenstein, Trocken Erste LageRiesling · Rheingau 2020 102

   Bone dry, broad-shouldered, faintly smoky. Yellow plum and crushed shell. A serious bottle that wants roast chicken and an hour of quiet.Tasted 22 October · M. Debord

3. 015 Weingut Steinhalde, Spätburgunder vom SchieferPinot Noir · Mosel 2021 89

   Whole-cluster, stem-spiced, translucent. Sour cherry and blue slate. German Pinot has quietly become one of the best arguments for a warming climate's few gifts.Tasted 22 October · A. Vireaux

Bottles that were laid down before the sommelier was born, bought at auction from a closing hotel in Logroño. When they are gone, they are gone.

1. 016 Bodegas Larrañeta, Gran ReservaTempranillo · Rioja Alavesa 1994 310

   Brick at the rim, silk in the middle. Dried fig, cedar, coconut from a decade in old American oak. Fragile and magnificent; we open it at the table, never before.Tasted 1 November · A. Vireaux

2. 017 Viña Cuesta Ondarra, Reserva EspecialTempranillo · Graciano · Rioja 2005 142

   Still holding its fruit — red cherry, leather, a lift of dill. Twenty years old and behaving like twelve. The safest bet on this page.Tasted 1 November · M. Debord

3. 018 Bodegas Larrañeta, Blanco FermentadoglassViura · Malvasía · Rioja 2015 7817 / gl

   The great forgotten white of Spain. Toasted hazelnut, lemon oil, a waxy weight through the middle. Ten years old and only now beginning.Tasted 1 November · A. Vireaux