Wine & Oysters
Having recently moved from Minneapolis to Boston, I've been like a kid in a candy store with all the oyster bars here and the huge selection of fresh seafood. My favorite so far has to be the tiny and ultra-cozy Neptune Oyster in Boston's North End. It's a classic with white tile everywhere, a pressed-tin ceiling, a beautiful marble-top bar with piles of lemons and buckets of Prosecco.
The other night, I went to Neptune after work for few rounds of oysters. I would usually have beer or sparkling wine, but these days I find myself ordering a nice, crisp Provencal rose to go with my oysters off the shell. And Neptune is serving a beauty by the glass from Jean-Luc Colombo. His Rose de Cote Bleue is a pretty, salmon colored wine that bursts with strawberries and citrus at first blush, rounding out with a refreshing minerality and slightly salty finish that perfectly complements sweet and briny raw oysters.
I did a little poking around and was surprised to find that the wine and oyster pairing is the subject of some debate and a lot of passion. Taylor Shellfish Farms of Washington state has been sponsoring an annual Pacific Coast Oyster Wine Competition, which is now in its 13th year. The new slate of winners (picked by judges in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle) will be announced on April 24. (Correction: 2007 winners will be announced on April 27, 2007). Last year the judges selected the following slate of winners:
- Blackstone `05 Pinot Grigio - CA
- Dry Creek Vineyard `05 Dry Chenin Blanc - CA
- Geyser Peak Winery `05 Sauvignon Blanc - CA
- Guenoc `05 Sauvignon Blanc - CA
- Kathryn Kennedy Winery`05 Sauvignon Blanc - CA
- Kelson Creek Winery `05 Sauvignon Blanc - CA
- Kenwood Vineyards `05 Sauvignon Blanc - CA
- Kunde Estate Winery & Vineyards`05 Magnolia Lane Sauvignon Blanc - CA
- Wattle Creek `04 Sauvignon Blanc - CA
- Willamette Valley Vineyard `04 Pinot Gris - OR
So what makes a good oyster wine? According to the event website, it's a dry, crisp, clean-finishing white wine. The website has a wonderful quote from Hemingway that started it all for the event organizers and has inspired me to play with new pairings for some of my favorite treats in my new city.
As I ate the oysters with their strong taste of the sea and their faint metallic taste that the cold white wine washed away, leaving only the sea taste and the succulent texture, and as I drank their liquid from each shell and washed it down with the crisp taste of the wine, I lost the empty feeling and began to be happy and to make plans.
A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway
Recent Comments