It was hard to tell who was more excited: the wine writers gathered at Pierre to taste some Robert Mondavi wines, or the Robert Mondavi winemaker getting a chance to taste some top-notch nosh at the swanky restaurant.
Wine distributor Jebsen Fine Wines brought over Gustavo Gonzales to court the local oenophile community and boost the California winery's profile. Genial and easygoing, he's on his first trip to Asia. Gonzales, who started as a harvester, quickly rose through the ranks to become the firm's chief red wine maker.
'I was at UC Berkeley as a chemistry major and a friend told me I could actually study winemaking too. After 14 years, I'm still one of the newer guys there. There's a strong sense of tradition to the family. There are people who've been there over 30 years.'
But Wednesday's lunch was as much about playfulness as hard sell. Guests were asked to taste the same wine made in different years and same-year reserves. Gonzales and the Jebsen people even tried to throw a curve ball by serving a three-year-old sauvignon blanc from a screw cap.
One thing, he isn't is a snotty blowhard who likes to show off by telling you the exact location, date, weather, soil and esoteric aromas from a single sip. 'I still don't know how people do that. I'm not at that stage yet. To me, winemaking is intuition. It's the art of understanding the flavours of the grapes.'