In all honesty, I dont think Chuck was being particularly rude. From what I see, there isnt notably much editing.

Looking at your own portfolio, I can see that you might be looking at these photos and thinking "How do I make the skin look so good and get those amazing reflections in the skin".

There are two things:

1) Hire a good model - which it looks like you already have done.
2) Setup up good lighting - learn how to use softboxes, reflectors and when to use the more harsh direct light.

I suspect much of what you see as editing is just good lighting. There may be a little skin retouching simply using the blemish tool or gentle blurring.

they have a nice grain in them and a very specific colour palette.

Is a matter of playing with tones in camera Raw/lightroom/capture one...

just reduce the contrast and/or put a another hue layer over it and maybe some grain. all possible with lightroom or camera raw. really nuthing special.