Oysters in Brittany?

[MarkinHouston]

We will be in Brittainy for a few days and would like to sample the oysters available to us. I have not found any threads on egullet which differentiates among "creuses", "fines de claires", "plates de belon", etc. I think the belon oysters are rated best, but can anyone explain what "speciales #2" denotes, for example: size, quality, or otherwise?

As a side note, we are in mourning over the destruction of the Grand Isle oyster beds by Katrina...the Gulf Coast oyster supply will require a long time to recover.

Thanks.

[MarkinHouston]

The following list of oysters was lifted from the website for La Mediterranee in the 6eme. It basically presents what I am trying to discern---what are the differences between Gillardeau speciales #2 and speciales "Papillons" and how do they differ form the Cadoret speciales? I have read previous posts which talk about the fines de claires de Marennes and of course belons are famous. Should I just get a half dozen of each, a bottle of Muscadet, and forget about dinner?

Spéciales de Gillardeau Fines de claires de Marennes

6 Spéciales "Papillons" n°5 6 Fines de claires n°2

6 Spéciales n°2

Spéciales de Cadoret Huîtres plates de Cadoret

6 Spéciales n°2 6 Belons n°00

La portion de bulots: 6

Pour accompagner vos huitres petites chipolatas de lapin rissolées: 5

Retour des huîtres fin septembre

[naguere]

Camping between Carentec and St Pol de Leon in August, most days at noon I called in at a local oyster producers farm and bought a dozen (usually abou euros 3.50 to 4). the farmers advice to me was that medium size was better than small or large.

The effort of opening them gave me much entertainment (the farmer did give me a quick lesson on shucking), the taste was superb.

[John Talbott]

We will be in Brittainy for a few days and would like to sample the oysters available to us.

Thanks.

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Johnnie (RW Jr) Apple wrote up a nice piece in the NYT.

[CarolineLD]

If you read French, the following site has a lot of information:

http://terroirs.denfrance.free.fr/p/fiches..._d_huitres.html

Caroline

[Bux]

We will be in Brittainy for a few days and would like to sample the oysters available to us.

Thanks.

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Johnnie (RW Jr) Apple wrote up a nice piece in the NYT.

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All about langoustines, and worth reading for that, but little if anything as I recall, about oysters.

[Bux]

Absolutely a bottle of muscadet. There are other wines that go well and my wife prefers sancerre or pouilly fumé, but muscadet is, in my opinion, the perfect wine to accompany oysters and for that matter, steamed mussels. It is also the wine Brittany may claim as it's own although it could be debated that even muscadet is made just outside its borders. I will admit that without the oysters, muscadet can seem harsh and even unpleasant. If necessary have a oyster and then start drinking the muscadet.

I don't pretend to understand the various names and terms that may appear on the menu. I don't even always know which refer to the oyster and which to the place of origin, either historic origin or where they are raised.

It's my understanding that the numbers refer to size and not to quality. I don't know which size tastes best, but generally the middle sizes seem most comfortable in my mouth. It's all quite relative. My preference, but it's not a stong one and I won't argue they're the best, is for the flat ostrea. In France those are the Belons, native to Brittany, and the Marennes, although I'm not even sure a Marenne oyster has to be a flat or plate. Fines (de) claires, I believe, refers to the fact that the oyster has been raised in shallow marshes near Marennes, well south of Brittany on the west coast of France. They often, or usually, have a green tinge from the local seaweed. Crassostrea oysters are generally referred to as common or Portuguese. Although widely cultivated along the west coast of France and the coast of Brittany, they originated further south in the Atlantic. Marennes oysters would not be from Brittany. In Brittany, oysters are cultivated both in the north near Cancale and in the south in the Gulf of Morbihan. Speciales are special, but I don't know that the term has any legal meaning. Bulots are large sea snails served boiled and should be accompanied by fresh home made mayonnaise.

My assumption was that Gillardeau and Cadoret are either place, names or trade names. They are the latter, or more correctly, producers. Gillardeau in Marennes and Cadoret in Brittany. To the best of my knowledge, all oysters are farmed, rather than picked in the wild.

The Tourist Guide of the Marennes Basin suggests that the Belons are long gone from Marennes and that the Portuguese are being replaced by oysters imported from Japan and Canada, but this is an area south of Brittany. It should be noted that within my French oyster consuming life, there have been at least a couple of times that oyster production in some part of Brittany or the west coast has been devastated by some act or accident such as the sinking of an oil tanker, or harmed by the temporary appearance of poisonous organisms that invade coastal shellfish operations all over the world. So historical information and personal memories may not always reflect current conditions. My sense is that if full recovery hasn't been reached, sufficient progress has been made so there should be a good sampling of excellent oysters, at least until the next disaster.

[MarkinHouston]

Thanks for all of the information! I'll bring back a full report.

[pim]

This photo might help. The three baskets on the left are Plates, the others are creuses.

The creuses were meatier and saltier than the plates, which seemed to be a little more delicate in taste to my palate, a little sweeter even. I prefered the plates, my companion the creuses, so to each his own, as it appeared.

The numbers corresponded to sizes and not quality, though the price did seem to get higer as the number lower.

You might also see some labeled Huitres Sauvage, those are wild, uncultivated oysters. The ones we tried did taste a little gamier than the others. They were bigger too so perhaps that contributed to the taste.

We also looked for Pied de Cheval, old, huge (hence the name) oysters that are sometimes served at Ducasse. We did find some, but they looked rather dubious, like they had been waiting for unsuspecting tourists for quite a while, so we gave them a pass.

[charl]

I am also planning a trip to Britanny , and wonder if anybody can tell me : when is the best time for tasting of Huitres de Belon at the spot ( Riec-sur-Belon ) ?

Late summber or autumn is certainly good for seeing the country , but for tasting of the huitres , is it better to go at November , end of November to maybe early December ?

Also the Michelin website said the famous Chez Jacky is open only from May to September , but the restaurant's website seems to tell they are open year round ( my french is not good , forgive me ) . Can anyone verify this ?

Thanks a lot .

[Oyster Guy]

The specials are actually fine des claire which are mentioned in an above reply.

They feed on a special algae called blue navicula which produces chloropyhll imparting a slight greenish tinge to the oyster's flesh.

Fin des claires come in 2 classes depending how long they have been in the saltwater marshes feeding on blue navicula.

1-3 months=fin des claires

6 months or more=special

The marshes have to have good water flow and a little higher salinity to produce a beautiful specimen of Ostrea edulis that goes very well with champagne or a nice chablis. I would reccomend that you go in November as the waters are at a perfect temperature and the oysters have had time to recover from their summer spawning and are nice and fat for their winter sleep.

Have fun on your trip and I hope this helps

Keep on shucking

Oyster Guy

[John Talbott]

The specials are actually fine des claire which are mentioned in an above reply.

Keep on shucking

Oyster Guy

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Great new info (to me). Thanks much.

[Mayur]

In case this wasn't covered above:

Fines de claires and speciales de claires are both Marenne oysters; the names just refer to different ages of creuses (ostrea edulis), as Oyster Guy pointed out. Speciales aren't exceptionally "special," any more than fines are especially "fine" or "small"; they're just fancy names for the age of the oyster.

The numbers, FYI, refer to weight. Plates are numbered from 000 (the largest) to No 6 (the smallest). Fines, speciales, and all other creuses are numbered differently, from no 1 (the largest) to no 6 (the smallest).

Generally, no 2 and no 3 are the most common creuses, but I actually prefer no 4 (somewhat hard to find, though).

Also, while muscadet is regionally appropriate, I prefer a sauvignon blanc wine with oysters, and thus generally go with a Blanc de Bordeaux (Saint-Veran is a particular favorite of mine). Stick with younger wines; the roundness of older whites tends to clash with the saltiness of French oysters.

[bleudauvergne]

They have offered a kind of oyster called "papillon" which I think are pretty good. We usually have a nice glass of Macon with ours.

[Busboy]

Also, while muscadet is regionally appropriate, I prefer a sauvignon blanc wine with oysters, and thus generally go with a Blanc de Bordeaux (Saint-Veran is a particular favorite of mine). Stick with younger wines; the roundness of older whites tends to clash with the saltiness of French oysters.

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I'm pretty sure Saint-Veran is a Burgundy, not a Bordeaux.

I like a good Chablis with oysters, myself, or a white Graves.

[Bux]

I'm pretty sure Saint-Veran is a Burgundy, not a Bordeaux.

I like a good Chablis with oysters, myself, or a white Graves.

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St. Veran is a town in the Mâconnais and the name of a wine from a designation area in, around or near the town. The Mâconnais is in southern Burgundy. Wine made from chardonnay grapes in the designated area of St. Véran, should be entitled to the AOC of St. Véran, Mâcon Blanc or Bourgogne Blanc if conforming in other aspects to the laws governing those appellations. The St Véran AOC is not all that old and dates from the early 70's. Prior to that the wines would have been bottled as Mâcon Blanc or Beaujolais Blanc as the area is on the cusp of those two appellations. I'm not even sure some of it isn't still entitled to be called, and bottled as, Beaujolais Blanc. On the other hand, I never saw much Beaujolais Blanc and now see less on the market.

In my opinion, oysters from Brittany deserve an austere Muscadet from the vinyards closest to Brittany, but the list of acceptable dry white wines is very long and includes most of the dry Loire wines, the drier crisper wines from Burgundy--Chablis in the north and Macon Blanc, et al in the south and some of the drier Alsatian wines as well as dry whites from Bordeaux. I was once assured by a fisherman on the west coast of France, that Entre-Deux-Mer, a minor appellation nearby, was the finest wine in the world. It too would go with oysters.

[Mayur]

Also, while muscadet is regionally appropriate, I prefer a sauvignon blanc wine with oysters, and thus generally go with a Blanc de Bordeaux (Saint-Veran is a particular favorite of mine). Stick with younger wines; the roundness of older whites tends to clash with the saltiness of French oysters.

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I'm pretty sure Saint-Veran is a Burgundy, not a Bordeaux.

I like a good Chablis with oysters, myself, or a white Graves.

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That will, of course, teach me not to post about wine while unpacking bottles from my airline carryon. Saint-Veran (a southern Burgundy, as pointed out) is indeed a wine I like, but not with oysters! (I find chablis and chardonnay in general a bit too flinty and powerful with oysters).

Entre deux mers is a Bordeaux subregion, and it was those whites that were the stuff I was thinking of; either the pure sauvignon blanc or sauvignon-based blend varieties are my favorite oyster wines. (Chateau Malene or Chateau des Faures '00 or '02 are two strong contenders that won't break the bank.)

Edited November 8, 2005 by Mayur (log)

[Ptipois]

I suggest sauternes with oysters. (Or loupiac, barsac, monbazillac, whatever liquoreux you can find.)

Try it!