Pairings

Here's a recipe and wine selection to try:
Balancing the Flavor Intensity of Food & Wine

Recipe: Oysters Fresca

This is a recipe easy to prepare involving fresh ingredients. Great any time of year.  This is a light weight dish, even with the cheese, so it requires a lighter weight wine. The dominant flavors to consider come from the garlic, butter and lemon peel. You want to let the flavors come through and not be overpowered by the wine. What wines might you consider?

Oysters Fresca

Adapted from the 2005 Allan Hancock College Wine Country Cookbook 

• Prepare your BBQ with charcoal. Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees.
• Mince garlic, then saute with oil and butter in pan. Add your spinach.
• Let spinach cook down. Turn and sprinkle with the lemon peel.
• Remove from stove and allow to cool.
• Put the oysters on BBQ. When shells open, remove.
• Halve shells. Discard empty shells.
• Dress oysters with spinach mixture and place 1 T. Mascarpone on top.
• Take a cookie sheet and spread a layer of rock salt on it.
• Place oyster shells on salted cookie sheet. Place so they don't move around.
• Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes, until cheese melts.

Wine Selections :

Were you thinking Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay?  You're on the right track. A nice Chablis style Chardonnay, meaning crisp, clean and preferably "unoaked", would be lovely. Why ? The citrus flavor of Chardonnay will complement the lemon in this recipe. Also, the lack of oak in the wine will make it a lighter bodied wine, again complementing the weight of the dish. Sauvignon Blanc would work well too, but will highlight more citrus/grassiness/mineral notes since that is the more dominant characteristics of Sauvignon Blanc. I suggest you try an "unoaked" Chardonnay and a Sauvignon Blanc. Each will pair differently and give you a different experience.

Wine recommendations :

Chardonnay - Try a French Chablis by Jean Marc Brocard or from California,  Joel Gott's unoaked Chardonnay. Kim Crawford makes a good unoaked Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand. - I always go for a French Sancerre, but if you want to stay with New World wine, there is New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc. which is always a terrific value.