The Great Chardonnay Tasting - Appetizers

I've started blogging about the Great Chardonnay Tasting (TGCT) that we had on Saturday, January 22, 2022 in my last blogpost, but in order that I give each wine it's proper time in the spotlight, the six wines that we tasted will have their own blogpost.
However, we did begin our Chardonnay Tasting with a Sparkling Wine, the nearly unobtainium called Ultramarine. We are fortunate enough to have friends that persist on the waiting list, finally become anointed with the honor of receiving this Sparkling Wine and then generous enough to share it with us.

We really enjoyed this Ultramarine which was made from Chardonnay sourced from Heintz Vineyard in Sonoma. The sparkling wine was lively, with fresh lemon aromas and a lemon, quince, and cream flavor. I really liked it.
The best pairing with sparkling wine is local oysters. We only thought of this on the Thursday before the Chardonnay tasting. I texted my go-to friend, Jill, of The Noank Aquaculture Cooperative and she said that her husband was out hauling in oysters as we texted. She said that she would try to reach him and see if we could get some. Well, we were fortunate! Initially, we ordered 4 dozen oysters but Jill said that the oysters were on the small side so they gave us 60 oysters!
With 60 oysters, my husband made it two ways. Fresh shucked with the Ultramarine and baked for a later course.

This pairing was the opening act for a night of Chardonnay tasting. The stellar nature of the wines we tasted deserves it own blogpost, so for the next few days, I will be recapitulating the wines in the order in which they were poured.