Field Notes #1
Domaine Jolly et Fils Chablis & French Fries, L'Avant Cave
The greatest thing to drink Chablis with is fries.
Specifically French fries. Skinny. Extra crunchy. Skin on. The kind that leave salt on your fingers.
I re-tested this theory last night at L’Avant Cave (for research, obviously) and can confirm: still holds.
The wine was Domaine Jolly et Fils Chablis, grown on what used to be the ocean floor. We’re talking crushed oyster shells, and millions of years of ocean compressed into limestone. But all you really need to know is that you can taste a little sea.
When wine people say minerality, this is what they mean: that clean, slightly salty edge that runs through the wine.
Some Chablis is straight-up clean and simple — lemon, green apple, a little chalk. Fine. Lovely. But the good stuff has that oyster-shell edge. We want Kimmeridgian limestone people.
Take a sip — delicious — take a bite, then take a sip. Even better. The salt on the fries makes the wine taste saltier, which sounds wrong, but it isn’t. Everything sort of snaps into focus. The salt sharpens everything.
Meanwhile the acid in the Chablis acts like a squeeze of lemon over fried food. Think of it like vinegar on your chippies. But classier.
8/10 wine. 10/10 pairing.