> Chef Frédéric Prouvoyeur's focus on seafood

While you may be preparing your dinners for the "End-of-Year" holidays, Frédéric Prouvoyeur, Château Magnol's dedicated Chef gives some precious advices on pairing wines with seafood.

Generally speaking, a "good" match occurs when a dish's primary flavour is enhanced by the wine, which nevertheless maintains its intrinsic character and gains in length.
To accompany the salty flavours of seafood (prawns, scallops, crabs, crayfish, oysters, clams, mussels, and cockles), do not hesitate to choose a white wine. The choice is enormous, and white wines go well with both raw and cooked seafood, as well as side dishes.

Seafood platter: a well-stocked seafood counter is wonderful to behold, but also challenging with regard to choosing the right wine. That's because it brings together a host of different textures and flavours. To avoid any clashes, simplicity is called for here: either an ultra-brut Champagne (i.e. polished and precise with very little dosage - the more vinous kinds, especially barrel-aged ones, are best avoided) preferably made mainly with Chardonnay, or a crisp, fruity, white wine like Muscadet. In any event, a white wine that wakes up the tastebuds, cuts through the fat in the mayonnaise, and leaves the breath fresh is recommended! Therefore, choose a young, crisp wine, such as Sauvignon Blanc (aged in stainless steel), Muscadet, Chardonnay, or any other fresh, lemony variety...
It's up to you to decide.

If you have oysters for lunch or dinner, the salty flavours tend to have an aggressive effect on wines and make it difficult to find a suitable match. Therefore, it is best to serve very crisp, dry white wines to recreate the impression of a dash of lemon juice. Barton & Guestier Passeport Muscadet is strongly suggested.

Tartare: thin slices of lobster, scallops, or Norway lobster are specially advised with elegant, floral wines showing good acidity - but not so powerful that they will overwhelm the delicate flavour of the seafood. Such wines need to be quite fresh to complement the tartare's rich texture, so good acidity is a decided advantage. Furthermore, wines that come from cool regions, but that have good body, such as a Chablis or grand cru Riesling from Alsace are perfect. A Pessac-Léognan or Graves Blanc that is not too oaky also works well here, as does a great Champagne.

Shellfish: shellfish with tender flesh and fine filaments (crabs of various kinds, sea urchins, etc.) calls for fresh, vivacious, tart wines, especially if in a prepared dish (in jelly or in a cream sauce such as a prawn blanquette or oysters florentine). The saltiness of the shellfish marries beautifully with a fresh, crisp wine like Sancerre or Chablis, as well as Sauvignon Blanc from Bordeaux. If you are looking for more marked aromatics and smoothness, you may prefer a Pouilly Fuissé or Saint-Véran. Prawns, lobster, Norway lobster, and spiny lobster, which have a more robust texture, are also very much at home with suave, rounder, aromatic wines such as a fine Chardonnay from Burgundy or wines from more southern climes such as Côtes-du-Roussillon, Provence, or Corsica. You can also enjoy these smooth, suave wines with other forms of seafood and shellfish.

Stuffed foods: mussels, clams, and even oysters are delicious served hot and stuffed. Cuttlefish stuffed with spinach, for instance, is a great dish. Seeing as garlic, butter, shallots, and parsley often overpower these dishes, it takes a strong aromatic wine to stand up to them. It is best not to choose discreet wines, but rather rich, powerful, aromatic wines: Saint- Joseph, Graves, slightly aged white Burgundy, etc.

Cooked seafood dishes: The best wine to accompany cooked seafood and shellfish depends on how it has been prepared - with spices and seasoning, boiled, steamed, sautéed, etc. For instance, spicy dishes (with curry, hot pepper, turmeric, etc.) and pan-fried jumbo prawns with coconut milk and curry go rather well with sweet white wines like Vouvray.. Ones from Alsace are also an obvious choice, but more original options are available from Southwest France: Côtes de Gascogne, Jurançon, and Pacherenc du Vic Bilh. When cooked Provençal style, seafood marries well with full-bodied rosés (Tavel, Lirac, and Bordeaux) or even very light reds served well-chilled (Beaujolais, Côtes du Rhône, Loire wines made with Gamay, etc.) - but white wines are, even so, the best partners!
A seafood Caesar salad, seafood vol-au-vent, or seafood soup makes a fine accompaniment to a simple, full-bodied white such as Bourgogne Aligoté, Pouilly-Fumé, or wine from the Mâcon region.

I wish you a great seafood & wine pairing experience!