Chablis stands apart from the rest of Burgundy both in terms of geography and style. It’s further north than the rest of Burgundy’s wine growing areas and their winemaking style tends to reflect the more austere conditions. It gets pretty steely with lots of crisp, lip-puckering citrus notes and tons of minerality.
My answer to those who don’t like Chardonnay for the oak and butter notes it’s often associated with is usually, ‘But have you tried Chablis?”
On the evening of this bottle share, the 2014 Jean-Marc Brocard Chablis Sainte Claire especially grabbed my attention. We happened to have two bottles from Jean-Marc Brocard in the lineup–the Saint Claire that retails in the low $20’s range, as well as a pricier Premier Cru cuvée. The Premier Cru showed more complexity, as might be expected, but I was really charmed by the Saint Claire and even more impressed by the degree of complexity it delivered at such a reasonable price point.
THE PAIRING
I soon got my hands on another bottle – this time 2015 – to cook to. I sat down with Greg (my husband and the photographer for these pics) to taste the wine and plan our dinner. The wine had bright lemon notes, gold and green apples, a hint of cream, light herbs, and salty sea minerals. It had a round mouthfeel with a sense of richness, but with a clean, chalky finish.I knew I wanted seafood with this wine, which is pretty classic for Chablis. (Oysters and Chablis are a famous pairing duo.) However, that richness made us crave something a little more opulent than a simple, clean seafood dish. There was a hint of Parmesan rind on the palate that was leading us to want to add some cheese to the mix. Greg thought back to the famous clam apizzas we had on a trip to New Haven and gave us the inspiration for this dish.
A little luxuriousness seemed in order, but I also wanted to keep the prep simple. The clams are cooked in a pretty classic style, with lots of lemon and some shallots and garlic, and then they’re chopped up to top the pizza. I know handling clams can initially seem a little intimidating, but they're actually pretty easy to work with. If you've never cleaned clams, the.kitchn.com has a good guide to lead you through it. (Next time I think I’ll make a double-batch and have half with bread or pasta the first night, and save the leftovers to make this pizza the next night.)
To save time, I made use of store-bought pizza dough–I was really happy with Whole Food’s version. That said, if you have a favorite recipe, certainly feel free to use it. I gave the dough a short blast in the oven on its own to crisp it up and help it stand up to all the liquid in the rest of the ingredients.
Burrata’s silky creaminess added that luxurious note I was looking for. Buffalo mozzarella would definitely work here as well, and even standard mozzarella will do in a pinch. Given the herbal notes in the wine, I thought there was room for a little something green as well, so I added some marinated artichokes and finished it off with some parsley and a couple handfuls of arugula just before serving.
We have been dreaming of this pizza since that night. It absolutely sung with the wine and vice versa. As we’d hoped, the wine held up to the creamy cheese really well. The minerality in the wine was reflected in the food and the citrus in both really came out and kept everything refreshing.
