Dressed crab and crab cakes

Dressed crab and crab cakes

Assuming dressed crab with white and brown meat, lemon and mayonnaise, or crab cakes, which take the same wines.

Crab is sweet, delicate and rich, the white meat light and the brown meat creamy and intense, and it usually comes with lemon and mayonnaise. The wine needs high acidity and a clean, unoaked style, since oak and shellfish together taste metallic. A little texture helps with the brown meat and the richness of a crab cake.

Pairs Perfectly. Falanghina, Campania, Italy. Lemon, white peach and a mineral, salty finish on bright acidity, from a coast where shellfish is daily food. Unoaked, light and inexpensive, it lets the sweetness of the crab come through and is an everyday bottle.

Pairs Well. English sparkling Blanc de Blancs, Sussex, England. Chalky, lemony and fine, with bubbles that lift mayonnaise and the fried crust of a crab cake.

Pairs Well. Dry Austrian Riesling in its Federspiel style, Wachau. Lime and stone fruit with a stony edge, and enough body for the brown meat.

Worth Seeking Out

Carricante from Etna, Italy. Flinty and lemony with a salty finish, grown on the slopes of a volcano, and a precise partner for sweet shellfish.

Avoid

Oaked whites and red wine. Oak and tannin both turn shellfish metallic, and a big wine buries its sweetness.

Failing That

A Vinho Verde, Portugal.

If All Else Fails

Côtes du Rhône blanc.

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