An oyster with champagne is a classic combination. The salty seafood that gives such a special mouthfeel, with the mineral wine adding acidity.
Image: ChampagneBureau
Did you know that oysters also indirectly end up ín your glass?
The vines on Champagne's limestone and chalk soils feed on fossils of marine animals found in the soil. With small, comma-shaped oysters called Exogyra virgula and belemnites, a type of squid. Both species are long extinct. They lived millions of years ago in the inland sea of the Paris Basin. After the water drained away, a thick layer of their skeletons formed, especially at the edge. Let the vineyards be right there, on that layer craie à belemnites which is up to 200 metres thick. As you can imagine, the roots feeding underground leave traces of the fossils in the final wine. Nurture the oyster that does still exist: the season for Zeeland's flat native oyster, the Ostrea edulis, still runs until April.
You will find more information in WINELIFE Magazine, issue 87. You can order this one here.
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