A transcendent food and wine experience is rarer than you would expect. Throughout my career I’ve been lucky enough to experience more amazing meals than a person who grew up subsisting on uncooked packaged ramen should, but have only experienced a handful of truly memorable pairings.
There are many wines that can work on a technical level with a given dish. However, a great pairing is much more than the result of food interacting with a beverage. The choice of glassware, the temperature (of both the liquid and the dining room), the progression of the meal, the spiel of the sommelier and the occasion all play some part.
And yet, a perfect pairing can also happen when you least expect it. After a rum tasting at Ko Hana, some friends and I made the trek up north to pick opihi and continue our shenanigans.
I can’t remember exactly how it happened but at some point, I found myself with a freshly shucked opihi in one hand and a reusable wine cup in another. For a moment it seemed as if the waves came to a halt. The marriage between crisp wine and salty opihi demanded my full attention. If a rogue wave happened upon me then, as I perched precariously on the jagged rocks, I’d have let it take me in my trance, grateful that I’d drowned knowing such bliss existed.
Because food and wine are dynamic and ever-changing, and because I’m at a point in my wine journey where I need some idealized experience to forever pursue, I believe a “perfect” pairing, much like a “perfect” moment, doesn’t exist. I will admit that some are definitely more memorable than others.
Domaine Michel Brégeon Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine Sur Lie, 2022
The bottling responsible for one of my most memorable pairings. Muscadet is fantastic with mostly anything from the sea but has been promoted for centuries as the ideal companion for oysters. Its subtle mineral tones simultaneously highlight and tame the brininess of the oyster and its refreshing acidity acts as a squeeze of lemon. Because of its session-able alcohol content, I open the wine early in the meal and find myself going back to it. From an organically certified vineyard that is 40 years old, it’s anything but a simple glass, but is priced as one.
Cost: $22/bottle.
Domaine Michel Brégeon Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine “Gorges,” 2018
Muscadet Sèvre-et-Maine is the highest regarded of the seven appellations in the Pays Nantais — a region where the Loire River meets the Atlantic Ocean — and Gorges is yet a smaller cru within it, demarcated for its special qualities and high concentration of the rare gabbro soil. This blueish, green volcanic rock imparts a superb depth to the wine and extended aging brings about a brioche and almond roundness — 2018 is the current release. It’s citrusy, creamy, floral and minerally all at once.
Cost: $40/bottle.
Chris Ramelb is an award-winning master sommelier, and director of education and restaurant sales manager of Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits of Hawaii. Follow him on Instagram (@masterisksomm).
