Wine Pairings with Oysters
My husband and I try to make the trip at least twice a year over to Pt. Reyes to sit on Tomales Bay at Marshall Store and eat oysters. We have always drank Muscadet with our oysters, but on this trip I wanted to try and compare some other wines and venture out a bit. So this is what we decided (along with the 4 other strangers-turned-fast friends that we met and hung out with for the rest of the day).1. Muscadet a French wine, produced in the Western Loire Valley from the Muscadet grape, also sometimes called Melon de Bourgogne, or called just melon. The name of this wine makes for a rare exception among French wines, in that it is not named after a region, but rather the grape. Muscadet (mu-ca-DAY)) has a very distinctive minerality and the nose often summons memories of the smell of fresh rain on hot summer rocks. Muscadet is a medium-to-light bodied wine with restrained fruit and is a classic pairing with oysters. Since we tried all 3 wines with all 3 oyster preparations, we were able to experiment and choose which pairing worked best. The Muscadet was well-matched with the Oysters Rockefeller. The weight of this wine, which exhibited a nutty flavor and a fuller mouth feel than the other wines, complimented the richness of the butter and spinach perfectly. The Reserve des Cleons Muscadet is produced specifically in the Sévre de Maine, where 80% of Loire Musdaet is produced.
2. Sancerre moving into the eastern part of the Loire Valley is one of my very favorite white wines, Sancerre. This wine, sold there at Marshall store, is a Kermit Lynch (a wonderful importer based in Berkeley) wine, Domaine Hippolyte Reverdy Sancerre. It has grassy edges, bright acidity and leaves a lemony whisper on your lips as you swallow this mouth-puckering liquid gem. Because this wine has so much going on, it paired beautufully with the simple preparation of the raw Tomales Bay oysters with a squeeze of lemon and a touch of shallot mignonette. (of course I added Maldon salt on top, being the only person, so I'm told, who would salt an oyster).
3. Vin De Savoie yet another French white wine that was recommended by another Berkeley wine shop as an alternative to Muscadet to pair with oysters. This wine, made from the Jacquére grape is from the far eastern mountainous region of the Savoie at the western edge of the Alps. The light crisp wine is a great example of the Alpine terroir of this region. It was pleasantly lean but also "jazzy" (as my friend Bett's grandmother might say). We loved this wine with the barbecued oysters that we then topped with ghost pepper hot sauce. The wine had enough acidity to stand up to these bold flavors atop the oyster. It was perfection.
Me (far right) With my new Southern friends. I spotted these 2 southerns a mile away!
