Pour Wine, Pass the Oysters

“Mmmmm,” says one. “Slurp,” says another. “Gurgle, gurgle, gurgle,” goes a third.

Grown people are making these sounds. Every one of them is properly attired, and they do not appear to be in the least embarrassed by what they are doing. Every once in a while one will mutter something along the lines of, “Nice acid, but too much wood and butterscotch. Do I detect a note of pepper, or is that just a mineral tinge?” Mostly, however, they just say, “Pass the oysters.”

Pass them they did: during the course of two hours, eight people managed to devour 35 dozen oysters. It was all for a good cause: they were trying to find the perfect American oyster wine.

The tasting was held on Nov. 8 at Ocean Avenue Seafood in Santa Monica under the aegis of oyster expert Jon Rowley. Rowley cornered the market on Olympia Oysters for the occasion (“They will have just come back into season and should be in excellent condition.”) He brought in special bread from Seattle. He handed out ballots, made sure the wines were tasted blind, and even provided champagne as a benchmark.

The result? Unfortunately the panel did not try the 1988 Muscat Ottonel from Eyrie in Oregon (see Maple Drive wine list review), and they agreed that none of the wines was perfect. But the winners, in order of preference, were Raymond California Chardonnay 1988; Peconic Bay Chardonnay 1987; Acacia Marina Chardonnay 1987 (not, I didn’t think, a very good match); Snoqualmie Semillon 1988 (my own favorite); and Paul Thomas Reserve Chardonnay 1987.