But back to our guest at the tasting menu table where the
sommelier is describing the next wine, an Austrian white called Gruner
Veltliner. Within minutes the first
course arrives in the form of white asparagus, prepared first as a salad with a
Meyer lemon vinaigrette, and second as a warm gratin. Asparagus challenges most wines for its
naturally high levels of sulfurous methionine convert the taste of even the
finest whites into something not unlike vegetal compost tea. But then there is the Gruner Veltliner, a
wine savory enough to cut through any resistance the asparagus mounts. And the white asparagus itself, with its lack
of chlorophyll--a result of sunlight never being allowed to touch it--diminishes
the vegetal notes, thus aiding the wine, and everything is perfection, again.
By the time the guest has finished the two asparagus dishes, he might
glance at the big man and see his table has already received a dozen dishes— as
if the kitchen knew ahead of time what to prepare. The guest might ask and
learn that the big man is Marvin Davis, and Spago values his business. Of
course they knew ahead of time what to prepare. He eats here every day, twice a
day.
Plates are cleared
efficiently, the silver replaced, another white wine glass added as the waiter
arrives with a bottle of E. Guigal Condrieu.
When anyone asked, all we waiters knew how to answer. Condrieu is not a
grape, it’s a place, and the history of Condrieu is built around one famous
grape, Viognier, which makes a peachy but dry wine that lends itself nicely to
Asian cuisine, particularly Thai. A
seafood curry arrives, featuring beautiful Santa Barbara spot prawns in red
curry with raised octave notes of kaffir lime and Thai basil. The prawns'
heads, tempura battered, lie on squares of white paper in the center of the table. By now the guest can almost touch the moon.
The dishes begin to arrive in succession, and the
keen-eyed guest will notice: They seem to come from everywhere around the
globe. Chef Lee Hefter commands a ship
that sails the globe searching for the right ingredients, ingredients that,
when synthesized, will elevate the diner to a vantage point high above the
earth. Oddly, wine pairings remain
rooted in the old world since the master sommelier, Michael Bonaccorsi,
believes that the “old world” set the bar by which the “new world” must be
measured. Many a wine enthusiast has embraced
good wines from California and Chile and Australia, but the Europeans have been
cooking and making wine for a long, long time.
There is a reason the Loire Valley is famous for its goat cheese so it’s
no accident that the Sauvignon Blanc grown in the Valley is the right wine to accompany
that cheese. The French feel so strongly
about these connections they have codified them into a system called Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée (AOC).
That said, the Turbot that arrives atop an eggplant nicoise
may find a crisp Rose from Provence as its soul mate. The sense of place, what the French call terroir, shines in the delicate texture
and mellow flavor of the turbot, which only days earlier was fished off the
Mediterranean coast of France and expressed overnight to Spago’s kitchen. The crisp green beans, tomatoes, and delicate
quail egg, comingle subtly with the interplay of fish and wine.
Next comes a straightforward sautéed Foie gras with a cherry
reduction, but the wine accompaniment shows an understanding of the physiology
of taste that would bring a smile to Brillat-Saverin’s face. Jurancon Sec, the dry version of Jurancon,
made from Gros Manseng, and hailing from the Southwest of France, integrates itself into the scene with its deep
golden color, not unlike that found in Sauterne, but totally different. Something miraculous is afoot.
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