This summer, needing a distraction from the sometimes oppressive heat and humidity, a dinner featuring great food and wines in a scenic, air-conditioned, indoor setting seemed like a good idea.
A friend reached out to chef Martin Bradley at the beautiful Hollywood Golf Club in Ocean Township, a true master of cuisine, to prepare a multicourse meal, each dish paired with a series of vintages of Chateau Pontet Canet, a fifth-growth Bordeaux from the Pauillac region. This wine is made with a blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc, and petit verdot grapes. The property where the grapes are grown is bio-dynamically farmed, and the wine is notable for its clean, bright flavors, which can be attributed to the judicious use of less new oak in its aging process than that of many other nearby estates.
The chateau is owned by the Tesseron family: Alfred and his two children, Justine and Noe. Chef Bradley, a Little Silver resident, is an artist and a student of haute cuisine and has spent part of his time off visiting the kitchens of world-famous chefs in order to learn from them. His food shows the influences of both his eye for beauty and a palate for what tastes good! He never fails to impress with his culinary expertise.
The first course we were served was a “shotglass” made of crispy rice, filled with cubes of raw sushi-grade tuna, which shared the plate with sliced raw sesame tuna, seaweed salad, pickled ginger and wasabi. The slices of tuna, a classic preparation, were elevated by the imaginative presentation, as the fish was served two ways with two distinctive flavors. Pretty as a picture, and a nice, clean and refreshing start to our meal, this dish was paired with the 2014 Pontet Canet. The wine was fully mature and had lots of fruit flavors with just enough tannin to keep it from being too soft. As it turned out, this vintage was voted to be the favorite of the night by many of the guests.
The second course was Wild Mushroom Ravioli, in a mushroom consommé with an assortment of Persian vegetables cut into small, colorful “marbles.” “Persian vegetables” refers to a large number of root and other vegetables traditionally used in the cuisine of the area that has been officially called Iran since 1935. The distinctive mushroom flavor and various textures made this dish very enjoyable – it looked like a colorful mosaic. This course was paired with the 2015 Pontet Canet, which had a bit less fruit than the 2014, but was still enjoyable. Our impression was that this wine was still in an evolving phase and would likely be even better in a few years.
The third course was Five Spice Magret of Duck with baby Leeks, fondant potatoes and a cherry demiglacé. The generous filet of duck breast was served properly rare and made for a good pairing with the 2017 and 2019 vintages of Pontet Canet. The meaty quality of the duck was enhanced by the two wines, which were savory and not at all tannic. The 2017 gave the impression it was still youthful and would be more complex and interesting with a few more years of cellar aging. The same could be said for the 2019, which made a strong case for setting some aside and revisiting in perhaps five to seven years.
For dessert, Chef Bradley made a delicious Chocolate Coffee Stack with whipped mascarpone and coffee crème Anglais, which was paired with the 2020 Pontet Canet. This wine was the least complex wine of the night. It was pleasant to taste, but did not have the depth of fruit and sophistication of the other vintages. The dish was creamy and not too sweet, so it was paired with a red wine, but the chocolate and coffee flavors may not have allowed the wine to show its best. It’s normally a challenge to marry chocolate and coffee with a dry red wine as it is, so we took this into account.
The Tesserons also produce Tesseron Cognac, which we were able to taste after the meal as a digestif. The bottle was labeled Lot 76, which is indicative of the year of its origin. It was smooth and fruity and not at all alcoholic tasting. The palate showed some stone fruits and a pleasant softness, which made it easy to drink at the end of dinner.
The evening was a nice opportunity to taste a series of consecutive vintages of the same wine to get a sense of how they compare year to year based on weather and harvesting dates. It is a challenge for any winery to decide when to pick and how to handle the grapes based on those variables.
The food was ideal for a hot summer night. It was complex and flavorful, but not at all heavy. Each dish was light on its feet, but still offered a variety of tastes. We indeed escaped the oppressive heat we have all experienced this summer with food and wines that were satisfying, allowing us to focus on something other than the weather!
HOLLYWOOD GOLF CLUB 510 ROSELD AVE., DEAL (OCEAN TOWNSHIP), NJ 07723 732-531-0900, HOLLYWOODGOLFCLUB.ORG
Bob Sacks, longtime food and wine buff, writes about food, wine and restaurants in this column. Follow him on Instagram @dinnerwithbob.
The article originally appeared in the September 18 – September 24, 2025 print edition of The Two River Times.
