Wines to wash down oysters

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Which wine to serve with oysters? That’s usually not a decision most of us have to spend too much time worrying about. Preferably something crisp and cold, but as long as there are oysters we’re happy. But professionals are made of sterner stuff. And so for the last 17 odd years, Taylor Shellfish’s Jon Rowley has gathered food and wine folks for the Pacific Coast Oyster Wine Competition in Los Angeles (at downtown shellfish heaven Water Grill), San Francisco and Seattle and subjected them to a couple of hours of eating oysters while tasting wine, just to find the happiest combination.

The 10 winners were the Brassfield Estate Winery Sauvignon Blanc, Caderetta Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon, Chateau St. Michelle Sauvignon Blanc, Hogue Cellars Pinot Grigio, King Estate Signature Collection Pinot Gris, Kunde Family Estate Sauvignon Blanc, Pine Ridge Vineyards Chenin Blanc/Viognier, Robledo Family Winery Sauvignon Blanc, Three Pears Pinot Grigio and Van Duzer Vineyards Pinot Gris.

[Updated at 11:05, May 4: An earlier version of this story left out some of the winning wines.]

Happily, all but two of the winners can be found for less than $15 a bottle and half of them cost less than $10 a bottle.

--Russ Parsons