Treat 10 gourmands to a night of exquisitely prepared food and exceptional wine brought to your doorstep by James Beard Best Chef Semi-Finalist David Gilbert. Features a five-course menu of caviar, lobster, foie gras, and Akaushi beef prepared in your home with impeccable service and a stunning array of 12 rare 90 to 98-point wines, including Roederer Cristal Champagne (’96,’04,’05), 2000 Kistler Chardonnay (Dutton Ranch & McCrea), 1998 Cheval Blanc, Haut Brion, & Mouton-Rothschild, Château d’Yquem (’88,’89,’98), and 1963 Niepoort do Porto. Includes chefs, waiters, food, wine, rentals, flowers and 10 autographed copies of Chef Gilbert’s book.

Courtesy of Dr. and Mrs. Gary Lawton, Chef David Gilbert, and The RK Group (Illusions Rentals and Flair Floral).

MENU:

RECEPTION
Caviar & Bubbles

DINNER

Maine Lobster wrapped in Jicama
Guava-Vanilla Dressing

Foie Gras Custard
Brandy Soaked Fruits

Intermezzo

Diver Scallops
Smoked Bacon-Barley, Heirloom Vegetable, Apple-Curry Bubbles

Akushi Beef
Potato Gnocci, Kamboca Squash, Pearl Onions, Honeycomb, Thyme, Truffle

Chocolate & Seasonal Fruit Torte

WINES INCLUDED IN PACKAGE:

Vertical of Cristal Champagne (3 x 750 mL bottles)

1996 Louis Roederer Cristal Robert Parker Rating 96
The estate’s 1996 Cristal, from a legendary vintage, does not disappoint. The 1996 is an insanely beautiful Cristal loaded with floral, perfumed fruit and vibrant minerality. The wine turns delicate in the glass, yet this is a sublime, fresh Cristal.

2004 Louis Roederer Cristal Robert Parker Rating 97
The 2004 is a powerful, structured Cristal layered with considerable fruit. An explosion of fruit emerges from the 2004 Cristal, making a strong and very positive first impression. This is a wine of incredible finesse, length and balance.

2005 Louis Roederer Cristal Robert Parker Rating 93
The 2005 Cristal stands out for its exceptional inner perfume and elegance. Soft, delicate and pretty, the 2005 is a relatively immediate Cristal with all of the signatures very much in the right place. The 2005 doesn’t have the opulence of the 2002 nor the focus of the 2004, but it is very pretty.

Horizontal of Kistler Chardonnay (2 x 750 mL bottles)

2000 Kistler Chardonnay Dutton Ranch Parker 91
The elegant, Coche-Dury-styled 2000 Chardonnay Dutton Ranch reveals notions of orange marmalade, liquid minerals, lemon rind, and citrus. Leesy/hazelnut qualities are also present in this medium-bodied, rich, delineated, French-styled Chardonnay. It is not surprising that their 2000 Chardonnays could easily pass as grand cru white Burgundies. These offerings possess incredible liquid minerality, great structure, and phenomenal purity. At the same time, their wines respect their individual vineyard sites.

2000 Kistler Chardonnay McCrea Vineyard Parker 90
The 2000 Chardonnay McCrea Vineyard is a crisp, lemony, zesty effort with hints of lemon butter, grapefruit, and assorted citrus characteristics. The wine possesses high acid, subtle wood notes, and a 1996 Burgundy-like style.

Horizontal of 1998 Bordeaux (3 x 750 mL bottles)

1998 Cheval Blanc Robert Parker Rating 96
A potentially immortal example that has gained significant weight since it has been bottled. Saturated purple color and a glorious nose of menthol, plums, mulberries, new saddle leather, cocoa, and vanilla. Amazingly seamless texture and tremendous concentration and extract, this full-bodied yet gorgeously pure and elegant wine is impeccably balanced and certainly one of the all-time great Cheval Blancs. If it continues to improve as much as it has over the last three years since bottling, this wine will certainly rival the 2000, 1990, and 1982.

1998 Haut Brion Robert Parker Rating 96
This is a prodigious Haut-Brion. It exhibits a dense ruby/purple color in addition to a tight, but incredibly promising nose of smoke, earth, minerals, lead pencil, black currants, cherries, and spice. This full-bodied wine unfolds slowly, but convincingly on the palate, revealing a rich, multi-tiered, stunningly pure, symmetrical style with wonderful sweetness, ripe tannin, and a finish that lasts for nearly 45 seconds. It tastes like liquid nobility. The 1998 continues to emulate the style of recent prodigious Haut-Brions. With all due respect to the glorious 1995, the 1998 appears to be the finest wine produced since Haut-Brion's prodigious 1989 and 1990. The dense ruby/purple color is followed by classic, developing aromas of minerals, lead pencil, earth, and black cherries/currants. On the palate, additional dimensions and nuances unfold.

1998 Mouton-Rothschild Robert Parker Rating 96
Like many of its peers, the 1998 has filled out spectacularly. Now in the bottle, this opaque black/purple-colored offering has increased in stature, richness, and size. It is an extremely powerful, super-concentrated wine offering notes of roasted espresso, creme de cassis, smoke, new saddle leather, graphite, and licorice. It is massive, with awesome concentration, mouth-searing tannin levels, and a saturated flavor profile that grips the mouth with considerable intensity.
 
Vertical of d’Yquem (3 x 375 mL bottles)

1988 Chateau d'Yquem Robert Parker Rating 98
The 1988 d’Yquem has an incredibly profound nose of orange marmalade, dried apricots, honeycomb, musk and dried pineapple with hints of marzipan and crystallized ginger. The palate is seamless with a great line of crisp acid cutting through the densely packed dried tropical fruit and honeyed flavour layers. The finish just goes on and on. Millionaires will have considerable fun comparing the evolution of the 1988 d'Yquem with the 1986. Both are super-rich, honeyed, botrytised wines. The 1988 exhibits a deeper color, as well as a more evolved, richer, and more complex bouquet. Aromas of melted butter, honeyed fruits, spicy nuts, and toasty new oak explode upward from the glass. The 1988 d'Yquem displays more richness and unctuosity than any young d'Yquem I have tasted. If my instincts are correct, this is the most profound d'Yquem since the legendary 1959.

1989 Chateau d'Yquem Robert Parker Rating 98
The favorite sweet wine of millionaires, Chateau d'Yquem has, not unexpectedly, turned in a brilliant effort with their newly released 1989. The nose is exuberant, just soaring from the glass with acacia honey, orange-blossom, apricots, quince and a touch of wild heather. Brilliant definition. The palate is perhaps more introspective than I anticipated but beautifully balanced with viscous honeyed fruit, tangerine, peach and just a hint of Seville orange marmalade. Lacquers the mouth in heavenly Sauternes with an extraordinarily long finish. Stunning! It is a large-scaled, massively rich, unctuously-textured wine that should evolve effortlessly for a half century or more. The 1989 is the richest Yquem made in the eighties, and it has an edge in complexity over the powerhouse 1983.

1998 Chateau d'Yquem Robert Parker Rating 96
The ’98 d’Yquem has a more extravagant nose than I remember, less mineralite than it displayed in its youth and perhaps a little more alcoholic on the nose. There are touches of pineapple, mango, treacle and custard cremes, becoming peachier with time in the glass. The palate is viscous on the entry and very well balanced with honeycomb, white peach, apricot and wild honey that leads to a powerful, if not elegant finish. A pale golden hue. A lovely minerally nose of almonds and custard creams. Very soft, plush and perfumed. Touch of chalk dust. The palate is unctuous with a lot of botrytis. Again, that custard creme note comes through mixed with peach, creme fraiche.

Half-century-old Vintage Port (1 x 750 mL bottle)

1963 Niepoort Vintage Port James Suckling Rating 90
Niepoort vintage Port is an explosion of intensely concentrated grape and raspberry flavors. Its compact tannin structure compresses this overabundance of fruit into a focused masterpiece with superb intensity of flavors. The 1963 is firm, with great harmony of fruit and tannins. Medium ruby, with very ripe earthy berry nose, medium bodied, with excellent backbone and stunning tannins.