What is the best wine for a seafood tasting?
If the André Brunel estate, producing Châteauneuf-du-Pape aoc, can not offer you a miracle recipe (since it does not exist), it can nevertheless offer you all our tips and tricks to know how to perfectly marry your wine with seafood, shells, oysters or trays. Whether in summer, for a sunny tasting by the sea or in winter at the end of the year, seafood is a must-see in French gastronomy.
Overall, they are drunk with rather dry and fresh white wine, as sweet wines are to be banned with seafood.
What wine with oysters?
The oyster can be tasted plain or with lemon: in this case, the solution is dry white, fruity but light. You then have the choice of a dry Vouvray, a Pouilly fled or Pouilly smoked, a Sancerre or a Sauvignon will do the trick. The freshness of these subtle wines reveals the oyster’s flavours.
For oysters with shallot sauce or oyster tartars with exotic fruits, turn to the more delicate Sylvaner blanc d'Alsace.
Are you ready to cook hot oysters with butter, cheese and breadcrumbs? You will make a perfect match with an extra brut champagne: the fine bubbles and acidity will sublimate the aromas of your dish.
Advantage: oysters are often served as an aperitif, when we drink champagne!
What wine for crustaceans?
For crustaceans, you must adapt the wine to the seafood concerned.
Prawns and gambas:
For prawns and gambas, the easiest solution is the fruity white, without fuss, like a Chardonnay, a Petit Chablis. We can also be tempted by a white champagne of the whites, the finest possible. These wines, fine and fruity, bring freshness to the oily flesh of shellfish.
If you want to be bold, it is quite possible to consider a fruity red with low tannin for prawns cooked in sauce. The Châteauneuf-du-Pape AOC, like that of the André Brunel domain, allows to reveal the subtleties of the crustacean.
Scampi:
The langoustine has a very melting flesh that calls a wine specific to each preparation. Nature, prefer a Saint Chinian, round and subtle.
If the langoustine is in sauce, you must adapt the wine to the said sauce.
Langoustines mayonnaises go very well with a dry white young as a Meursault first cru.
Lobsters and crayfishs:
For these luxury crustaceans, the choice is important, because it will sublimate your lobsters and crayfish, star of seafood platters.
For lobster, the wines of the Loire Valley (Montlouis, Vouvray, Saumure) are a sure value: fruity, mineral and fresh, they reveal the flavours of lobster without hiding them.
Our favourite for lobster? In all modesty …. the Châteauneuf-du-Pape white, cuvée «Les Cailloux» which will go very well with crayfish or lobster, if you want to experience and try the pairing met and wine simply click here.
However, if you’re looking for grilled lobster, try a raw champagne or a firm wine like Riesling.
The lobsters, served cold, must be accompanied by a fruity and dry wine, like a Chablis or a Languedoc.
Served hot, turn to the round wines of Alsace and Savoie.
For an Asian-inspired lobster tartare, turn to the Pouilly Fumé.
What wine for shellfishs?
With an iodized taste, the shells will adapt especially with mineral and saline wines. To impress your guests with your originality, you can try the Egiategia wine from the Basque Country, whose wine is vinified by immersion at the bottom of the sea. For more classic chords, we turn to the Chablis or Sancerres, because the limestone of their terroirs allow a great minerality.
Mussels:
For a traditional dish of mussels with shallots and garlic, the Loire Valley, the Muscadet or the Anjou allow to balance the fat of the dish with an acid and fresh note.
Clams and cockles:
For cooked shells such as cockles and clams, the structured richness of Rhône Valley wines such as Lirac makes it possible to compensate for the delicacy of the flesh. The clam can for example be accompanied by a Muscadet for its acidity.
Scallops:
The scallop shell is a nec plus ultra of French gastronomy. The white of Burgundy (Mâcon, Puligny Montrachet), the Gewurztraminer of Alsace or the Costières-de-Nîmes will sublimate a just pan-fried scallop, thanks to the mineral acidity that will reveal the subtle aromas of the shell.
The good white wine for the seafood platter
The whole is to know how to make compromises without mistakes and the solution is all found: a dry white wine light and fruity as a Vouvray will put everyone in agreement.
It is also possible to stay in the raw champagne to accompany the tray, the acidity of the bubbles being quite in tune with the fatty flesh of the seafood.
Now all you have to do is enjoy!
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Published : 2023-05-02