Remembrances of menus past—Chardonnays of the 1990s (guest chef Chris Gesualdi)
From the chapter: Menus—Through the past
June 1995
In this orgy of Chardonnays, rather than isolate each wine with a dish, we allowed our guests to sample all five wines with each of the first three course; each bottling representing the remarkably concentrated, barrel fermented, largely cold climate grown Chardonnay typifying the cutting-edge style⏤largely defined by faithfulness to Burgundian techniques⏤of the early 1990s.
Chris Gesualdi, then the chef of Montrachet in New York, collaborated with Roy Yamaguchi to fashion three Pacific Rim style seafood dishes—each packing a wallop (lot of male chef testosterone in the event, appropriate for "Chardonnays of the ‘90s” theme)—that were as good as anything we’d ever concocted, particularly in the way that they focused on the creamy, buttery aspects of the grape.
The third course had Gesualdi infusing lobster coral (unfertilized eggs) into his sauce, and the resulting force of this combination with the astoundingly rich, Montrachet-like whites was certainly not for the faint of heart. But somehow we pressed on.
The courses:
Roasted Lobster with Chardonnay Ginger Lemon Butter
Seared Mahi Mahi Salad with Crispy Limu Ogo and Essence of Uni and Lobster
Herb Crusted Opah (Moonfish) with Summer Vegetables and Coral Butter
Three Napoleons of Lilikoi, Ginger and White Chocolate Crème Brûlée
The wines:
Au Bon Climat, Gold Coast Vineyard Santa Maria Valley Chardonnay 1993
Chalk Hill, Estate Chardonnay 1993
Saintsbury, Carneros Reserve Chardonnay 1993
Simi, Sonoma Reserve Chardonnay 1990
Stonier’s, Mornington Peninusula Reserve Chardonnay 1994
The guest winemakers in attendance:
Jim Clendenen, Au Bon Climat (Santa Barbara)
Tod Dexter, Stonier’s Winery (Mornington Peninsula, Australia)
Nick Goldschmidet, Simi Winery (Sonoma)
David Graves, Saintsbury Vineyards (Carneros)
David Ramey, Chalk Hill Winery (Sonoma)