Raveneau & Oysters: A Symphony of Sea and Stone
Dinner last night was as close to perfect as it gets. Perfect in its simplicity, when the wines are allowed to shine, and the oysters have never tasted this good! Fresh Hog Island oysters — Atlantic, Sweetwater (Pacific), and Kumamoto — cold, briny, crystalline, and clean, it felt like drinking from a glacier. I slowly ate a whole plate and drank the liquor straight from the shell, pacing back and forth between the oysters and the wines. The pairing: Domaine Francois Raveneau Chablis 1er Cru Monts Mains 2020 and 2022 , side by side. The vineyard sits on classic Kimmeridgian limestone on the left bank of the Serein — pure, saline, stony Chablis. Raveneau lets the site speak: hand-harvested fruit, long lees aging in old barrels, no makeup, no flash. 2020 showed as calm and complete — rounded fruit, a hint of mint and white flowers, supple texture, slow-building depth. 2022 was brighter, more citrus-driven and energetic — a bit brash in youth, but with the same mineral backbone...