Pre-Christmas Celebration

'Twas two days before Christmas and a winter storm was bearing down on the east coast. On Thursday evening, the system brought rain and gale force winds and when we woke up on Friday morning, it was still raining. We chose a time between the deluge and an impending 30 degree drop in temperature to drive 2 hours north to Massachusetts to visit our son and his family. They relocated from Seattle in March and this would be the first time we would visit them in their abode. Needless to say, while the roads were crowded we didn't run into any traffic slow downs due to the weather. (Most people had chosen to drive on Thursday or hold off to Saturday when better weather was forecast). We did get to our destination and were able to spend some quality time with our son and his family.
Our son scored a porchetta from a bona fide butcher shop and he also knew that it would take 5 hours to cook the trussed pork. When 5 p.m. rolled around, my husband began shucking the oysters that we had been gifted from our hunter. We paired the oysters with this Laherte Freres Ultradition Extra Brut that my husband had sourced. Laherte Freres is a grower-producer and was founded in 1889 by Jean-Baptiste Laherte and is now in the hands of Aurélien Laherte who took over in 2005. The label on the back of the bottle indicated that it had 4.5 g/L of dosage and the composition was 60% Pinot Meunier, 30% Chardonnay and 10% Pinot Noir. The Ultradition lineup consists of Brut, Extra Brut and Rosé Champagnes.
After consuming 2 dozen oysters and imbibing the Laherte which was a terrific pairing, we moved on to the porchetta with baked potatoes and salad. The porchetta was paired with our 2019 Cabernet Franc (extremely limited production of 8 cases) which paired very well with the pork and evolved throughout the meal.

Last but not least, dessert was a gingerbread cake topped with whipped creme! We are still recovering from our slight overindulgence.
References:
1. Laherte Freres, Polaner Selections.