What To Drink With Oysters

Land lovers wax poetic about terroir, that curious term for the environmental factors—soil, climate, topography—that influence everything we eat and drink. In Oysters: A Celebration in the Raw, authors Marion Lear Swaybill and Jeremy Sewall explore merroir, or how the sea (mer in French) influences the flavor of oysters.

Sewall is a self-described oyster nerd and chef/owner of Island Creek Oyster Bar and Row 34, both with multiple locations in New England. In the six years since he opened his first Boston oyster bar, he's seen the delicacy become an everyday menu item. His Island Creek Oyster Bars now shuck 2,000 oysters in a single day.

What we don't see at our local happy hour is the rich diversity of what the ocean has to offer. Swaybill and Sewall brought in photographer Scott Snider to capture more than 100 pages of gorgeous oyster centerfolds. We've picked nine of our favorites and asked Brahm Callahan, beverage director of Himmel Hospitality Group (Grill 23 & Bar, Post 390 and Harvest restaurant in Boston) to pair them with wine. The results are surprising.

Among Canada's best-known oysters, malpeques are tender with a balance of sweet and briny flavors.

What to drink? Callahan's ideal pairing here is Champagne, such as Louis Roederer's Brut Premier. "They go together amazingly well, with the briny component in the oyster playing off the intense marine minerality found in the Champagne, and the biscuit and ripe apple, pear and lemon notes of the Champagne balancing out the sweetness of the oyster," he says.

Fat Dog oysters are cage-grown just off the floor of Little Bay, a part of the Great Bay system that is fed by the Piscataqua River. The Piscataqua has some of the strongest currents on the East Coast, which bring salt water in from the Atlantic twice a day. Fat Dogs have a strong shell with a deep cup that comes from being tumbled in their cages by the rolling tides. These oysters have a mossy, sweet flavor with a salty finish.

What to drink? "I look for a wine with herbal green notes to play off the sweet, mossy component here," Callahan says. Nigl's Freiheit Grüner Veltliner is the perfect pairing with notes of wasabi, pea tendrils and radish, with a little bit of a spicy white pepper finish.

These are not your typical Virginia oysters. A collaboration between Island Creek and Chincoteague oysters, and a hybrid of Island Creek and Virginia bivalves, Northern Crosses have a strong vegetal flavor up front, followed by a bread-like quality with a strong salty finish.

What to drink? "Sometimes oysters and a great lager work, too," Callahan says. "The sweet malt and subtle bread notes play off the salty finish of the oyster perfectly." His pick is Augustiner-Bräu's Edelstoff, a traditional helles lager from Munich.

Grown in floating trays in Deep Bay, British Columbia, Kusshi oysters are tumbled, resulting in deep cups and beautifully colored shells. Mildly briny, they taste like lightly salted melon.

What to drink? Callahan picks a fruit-forward Sauvignon Blanc from the Loire Valley in France. "The mix of tart and ripe citrus, and tropical fruit with some smoky minerality coming through balances out the briny, fruity component in the oyster," he says. Look for Domaine Philippe Gilbert's Menetou-Salon.