Fresh crab salad and 17 year old Muscadet (and yes, you did read that right!)

Apologies for returning once again to the subject of crab but it is one of my favourite summer foods and this was the outstanding match of last week.

The occasion was a lunch at The Seahorse in Devon to celebrate the launch of a campaign to promote South Devon crab which I’ve written about on my blog Food and Wine Finds but I didn’t touch on the very interesting wine pairings with which we experimented.

The most fascinating one was a 17 year old Muscadet Sevre et Maine called Le L d’Or from Pierre Luneau-Papin from the 1993 vintage. The idea of Muscadet lasting that long is almost inconceivable but it was still astonishingly fresh - piercingly intense and mineral and a perfect wine for the simply prepared crab salad we were served. You can read more about his domaine Pierre de la Grange here on winedoctor.

We also had a couple of other bottles open, a Costa di Giula 2008, a lush Vermentino-Sauvignon bland from Michele Satta Bolgheri which was particularly good with a dish of spiced brown crab and an exotically scented Traminer Aromatico from Conte Brandolini d’Adda which would have been better with a spicier preparation still such as spicy crab linguine or a south Indian crab curry.

I realise from my previous posts that I’ve found a fair number of good matches for fresh crab which does underline that it is one of the best types of seafood with which to enjoy an elegant, crisp dry white whether it’s a Muscadet, Sauvignon, Chablis or Albarino. Or a fine Chenin Blanc as I suggested the other week.