Chablis and Oysters

Whilst idly googling gastroporn on the net after a hard day's work copywriting I came across a video on YouTube featuring.... myself and my sister Abigail.  My Google search was "Chablis and Oysters", nothing dirty you understand, if a little fishy.  I couldn't believe I hadn't turned this into a blogpost before so feel I should now, even though it dates from Christmas Day last year.  I do now live near Chablis, which is a long way from the sea, but as you will see, if you watch the video, there is a good reason why Chablis goes so well with oysters...

Cod & Sauce Verte

A Great Match... chablis & oysters

These wild oysters gathered minutes before have an intensely briney, almost bitter twang to them. Never have oysters needed a squeeze of lemon or spoonful of shallot vinegar less than these. However, they are thirsty work and the wine quenches that thirst and brings out the mineral character of the mollusc. And the mollusc reciprocates and accentuates the mineral, stoney, almost 'oystery' character of the wine; after all, the soil in Chablis is made up of oyster shells. But choose your Chablis carefully as some Grand Cru are aged (and even fermented) in oak and should be treated like top Côte d'Or whites to go with turbot, halibut, Dover sole etc.

A Couple of Old Scrubbers... Jean-Marc Brocard & I cleaning oysters

The older scrubber is Jean-Marc Brocard from Chablis who makes wines which go so well with those being scrubbed. Incidentally, the water is spotlessly clear and clean; the orange tinge comes from the peat over which this burn flows on the Isle of Mull. The oysters were gathered at low tide 100 yards away and were subsequently eaten at high tide 30 yards away.

Native wild oysters gathered at low tide, Isle of Mull

These oysters were picked at low tide off the coast of the Isle of Mull in the inner Hebrides.

They went down a treat with a magnum of chilled Chablis 1er cru 1998 from Jean-Marc Brocard.