It was one of two eureka moments for me in food and wine matching. We had just moved into the flat after having bought and renovated it in the spring of 1997. The stuff was still in boxes, being slowly unpacked. We got to know one of the local restaurants and its new owner, who treated us to some American jumbo oysters one day. I brought along a bottle of Albert Pic Chablis Premier Cru to wash it down.
Previously, my wife and I had already tried the combination of Brokenwood Semillon with Sydney rock oysters (+ cocktail sauce) and found it pleasing. The Chablis did not go down well at first. I suppose he had been used to Blue Nun and the likes as far as white wines go, and the acidic dry minerally Chablis just didn't cut any ice. I just went ahead and tried my oyster. Having cut myself a morsel, I accompanied it into my mouth with a generous sip of the wine. Wow, what a revelation! The fishiness of the oyster cancelled the acidity of the wine and revealed a fruitiness I had hitherto never associated with the steely (nearly austere) minerality of Chablis. Likewise, the wine's acidity revealed a sweetness of the oyster flesh which was masked by its briny fishy flavours. This was a classic case of 1+1>2; I would even say this interaction between the food and wine was fireworks. The restauranteur tried and agreed. It opened up a whole new perspective on dry wnite wines for him.
PS. The array of the oysters above was from a Peter's Wine Circle oyster wine dinner in 2006, some 9 years after this eureka moment.
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