The Wine Knows

Friends of ours spent the long weekend at their family property near Shelton, Wash., on the Olympic Peninsula. As I've learned, this is good for me because they tend to bring back oysters.

Last night, we were invited over to imbibe. I was asked to supply the wines.

The best wine for oysters is crisp, racy, with fresh fruit and steely notes. In fact, God may well have created Chablis specifically to go with oysters (given the ancient seabed that makes up that region's soil profile).

No Chablis in my cellar, so I selected two delicious wines: the 2007 Noble Blend from Joie Wines in Naramata, B.C., and the 2005 Pinot Gris from Navarro Vineyards in California's Anderson Valley.

Both were delicious and worked quite well with the bivalve feast. We started with the Gris, which was probably six months past its peak but still was plenty nice. Everyone buzzed about how much they liked it.

Then came the Joie, and the brightness of the youthful wine shined with the oysters, cheese, salad and stew. It was a huge hit with the six adults (not so much with the four youngsters). And why shouldn't it? Joie owners Heidi Noble and Michael Dinn were in the restaurant biz in the Lower Mainland before heading east to the Okanagan Valley to make wine. Thus, who better to know how to craft a wine that pairs with seafood than a couple of Vancouver restaurateurs?

I've been somewhat dismayed that Joie's wines have not done better in competitions. Yet this reveals one problem with wine judgings: context. By itself, a Joie wine might not stand out from the crowd. But with the right kinds of foods, there may be no better wines in the Pacific Northwest.

And that makes me jump for joy - or joie.