Shellfish Sunday

I love close out bins in wine shops. Saturday I came across a nice bargain sitting in the bin at a local source. The 2008 vintage of Muscadet is hitting the shelf and the local store marked down the 2007 vintage from $16 to $11. That made it a bargain, so two came home with me.

That meant Sunday was going to be about shellfish, primarily oysters. They were opened and placed on the grill briefly to just warm and pick up a hint of smoke, then they were hit with a drop or two of lemon juice and a tiny grind of white pepper. Heaven on the half shell.

Along with the oysters there were some fresh clams cooked on the grill and topped with some tiny bits of salt pork cubes that had been totally rendered. For good measure we grilled a few sea scallops.

The patio smelled terrific and what we ate tasted even better than it smelled. The only side dish was some sauteed corn. We cut the kernels off a couple ears of just picked corn, sauteed a little red onion in some oil, then added the corn kernels and sauteed both together. We added a tiny pinch of ground cumin and a tablespoon of butter at the very end, then stirred in a couple tablespoon of fresh picked basil.

The wine was the 2007 Domaine Guindon Saint Gereon, Muscadet Coteaux de la Loire, Sur Lie. Pale in the glass with just a touch of green at the edge, it smelled of very tart apples and lemons and water running off dry limestone. The minerality was there in spades in the taste and the acid came along for the ride. It wasn't so much about fruit as it was the earth in this 12% alcohol wine. It's hard to beat oysters and Muscadet, and it wasn't too bad with the clams and scallops either. There was a crusty roll or two to mope up some juices that escaped onto the platter and plate.