Current Drinking

There’s an easy match with things from the ocean, but there’s also a sea of options outside the tried and the true, writes MAX ALLEN.

- Max Allen

White wine with fish. It’s one of the first rules all hungry grape geeks learn when they start to think about matching wine and food. And on the whole, it’s a very reliable rule: nobody would disagree that a nice glass of crisp, cold Chablis is going to taste better with a platter of oysters than a full-bodied, oaky shiraz.

But that doesn’t mean you should only reach for a chardonnay or savvy blanc when fish is on the menu. I have found, over decades of careful research (yes, mostly in the form of eating and drinking to joyous excess in exotic locations around the world) that there are plenty of other, less-obvious liquid matches that work just as well, if not better.

Take that platter of plump oysters. Sure, a good Chablis – or, even better, a lesser-known French dry white such as Muscadet or Picpoul – is a deservedly classic match. But consider instead pairing oysters with a late-disgorged sparkling wine.