Oysters and champagne: a toast to 2023!

I know, I know... I'm a little late in wishing you a Happy New Year this year! In fact, it has been a while since I posted on my beloved wine blog, but I will make up for it with a nice reflection dedicated to one of the most beloved pairings of all time: oysters and champagne! A pairing that has also recently been opposed by some know-it-alls who have merely shown off their cognitive superficiality. This is because talking about oysters and Champagne, as always, means nothing without specifying what type of oyster and what type of champagne and the relative merroir e terroir!

The world is big and the food and wine world is even bigger. This sentence is enough to understand that generalising is absolutely counterproductive and often creates mental barriers that undermine real enjoyment of the senses. Prejudice, when faced with a food or wine, is a limitation that leads to nothing good. So let's add this to your personal list of good resolutions for 2023: NEVER GENERALISE. A good sommelier is curious, never prejudiced and above all knows that saying 'chardonnay' doesn't mean much if you don't at least contextualise a type of wine, an appellation, a winery and a vintage.

Oysters and champagne: does it make sense to talk about this pairing like this?

For the same reason, it is absolutely nonsensical to speak generically of 'oysters'. OK, by saying the word oyster we are framing the famous bivalve mollusc that we bring to our tables on special occasions... but saying oyster is exactly the same as saying chardonnay: a bit too generic don't you think? Or do you want to tell me that a 2005 Le Montrachet Grand Cru chardonnay from Burgundy is the same as a Menfi AOC chardonnay from Sicily?

As I explained in this article, an oyster has a merroir (i.e. a production environment comparable to the terroir of wine), an oyster grower and a farming method. Furthermore, there are various PGIs of oysters with very different organoleptic characteristics determined by the structure of their fat and the area where they come from, which define their more or less intense nutty and iodine scents.

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Oysters and Champagne for New Year's Eve 2023

On the last day of 2022 I decided to close it with the Kys Marine 2-calibre oystersA delight for lovers of this extraordinary mollusc! Their main particularity is their form of farming: they grow in hanging bags in which the wave motion is reproduced to make the oyster work harder and contribute to its development. They are very fleshy, with good backbone and have an enveloping fatness. The hint of fresh hazelnut is very pronounced when chewing, which is essential to go beyond the iodized taste of the sea that arrives the instant the oyster enters the mouth.

I have had the good fortune to try oysters of almost every calibre in my life (I recommend reading this article to elaborate on oyster gauging and some of my oyster farming notes) and in my opinion the 1 - 2 gauge is the best. Let's say when the oyster is around 120 g it is the best.

For the sake of clarity, here is the gauge of concave oysters:

• size 0: the oyster weighs more than 150 g
• Size 1: the oyster weighs between 120 g and 150 g
• Size 2: the oyster weighs between 86 g and 119 g
• Size 3: the oyster weighs between 66 g and 85 g
• Size 4: the oyster weighs between 46 g and 65 g
• size 5: oyster weighs between 30 g and 45 g

If the size is the first clue to the quality of the oyster (the bigger it is the more valuable it is), it is important to remember that it is not the only factor that determines it, and therefore it can be said that the more the size tends towards 0, the better the oyster.

L'Hommée de Champagne Roger Coulon

There were 10 Kys Marine oysters and they weighed a little over 1 kg so they were about 100 g each and were close to the ideal size to enjoy an oyster of exceptional quality. Their taste goes so well with a Champagne like this one from Roger Coulon because its taste of white chocolate with lots of vanilla contrasts nicely with the brackish taste of the oyster, while its intense hint of hazelnut agrees perfectly with the scent of the wine. Moreover, I had already tasted Champagne Hommée Roger Coulon at Blend 2022 and I must say that these extra 2 months of disgorgement have been exceptional in rounding off the taste and making the bubbles silkier.

Champagne Premier Cru L'Hommée is made from a blend of chardonnay and pinot noir from the oldest plots of Roger Coulon's property, where the oldest vineyards are to be found, those where the old agrarian measure 'L'Hommée' was still used, a symbol of how much vineyard a man could work in a day. You can learn more about the details or buy this bottle directly on the Bellenda website.

So I take this opportunity to thank Umberto Cosmo of Bellenda for sending me this delicious bottle for Christmas! Umberto Cosmo is a visionary producer who has also created his own import of wines from Italian and European producers who share his vision of wine. As someone who has actually tasted every label he markets, I can tell you that the quality is very high (you can read all my tasting notes of Blend 2022 here).

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All my notes on wine and food in one book.

Finally, I want to remind you that, beyond the necessary technicalities, the right pairing is the one you enjoy. Wine and food are first and foremost an experience aimed at the enjoyment of the senses and in particular your senses. Never be afraid of making a wrong pairing if you like what you are doing! So many times, especially we sommeliers, have great performance anxiety because others expect us to be infallible or to do what we have been taught. Yet we should never forget that we study to acquire the skills we need to break the mould: if every man had just done the task, we would not have had the great inventions that have brought us into the third millennium.

Happy New Year and... in this 2023 never be afraid to be wrong!

Cheers 🍷

Chiara