I’ve long appreciated how a handful of fresh crabmeat can instantly make any dish both more sophisticated and substantial, from fried rice to curried soups to avocado salads. With crab cakes, the crab becomes the focus, but for a heartier, humbler purpose. They don’t need much more than a salad as an accompaniment. They’re versatile—they work for brunch, lunch, appetizers, or dinner. 

Everyone has their own approach to wine pairings; I like to have the wine accentuate the unique qualities of the food rather than counteract them. For crabmeat, those qualities include the inherent sweetness of shellfish—found in lobster and scallops as well—but also their robust texture, which can encompass generous spice and seasoning. 

So with crab cakes, I reach for wines with a medium body, with flavors ripe enough to hint at sweetness without ever being mistaken for dessert wines. Chardonnay is certainly a possibility, but with so many options and styles out there, I feel it would be a matter of selecting the exact right bottle within a minefield of potential duds; white Burgundy, meanwhile, seems almost too poetically pretty for this homey seaside fare. Instead, I find reliable partners in Chenin Blanc, barely off-dry Riesling, and Godello.

As for preparing the crab cakes, high quality lump crabmeat is always the starting point, preferably fresh. Since crabmeat is usually sold pre-cooked, achieving “doneness” isn’t a big concern. I’ve tried recipes for pan-fried and broiled crab cakes, but I’m partial to the low-fuss, oven-baked recipe I discovered in the “You Asked For It” section of the June 1995 issue of Gourmet magazine. JoAnn from Baldwin, New York, wrote in looking for the recipe for “the world’s most sublime crab cakes,” which she had ordered at The Sea Grill in New York City. Home cooks will appreciate the convenience of sliding the crab cakes straight into the oven, and avoiding anxieties over having them fall apart in a frying pan. 

For anyone who has frequented the tourist hubs of New York, you might remember The Sea Grill (which closed in 2020) as the more expensive of the two restaurants where you could watch the ice skating from the downstairs level in Rockefeller Center. As for me, The Sea Grill was a landmark on my morning commute for two years; after making my way from the subway station through the Rockefeller Center labyrinth, I would round the restaurant’s glassy panels just before climbing the stairs to my building’s lobby. The food itself was undeniably tasty, if uncreative, while the prices were clearly built for corporate expense accounts and tourist splurges. It was, like many Midtown establishments, a lovely place to be taken on someone else’s dime.

The Sea Grill’s lease ended just before the pandemic swept through New York. A host of newer, cooler restaurants now call Rockefeller Center home: Jupiter, Le Rock, and Lodi. Still, the memory of The Sea Grill lives on through this adaptation of its crab cake recipe, which was originally published in Gourmet magazine. For best results, enjoy them with one of these wines.

Crab Cakes Wine Pairings

2021 Willi Schaefer Graacher Riesling Feinherb ($32)

Among German wine’s hyper-specific labeling (Kabinett, Spätlese, Auslese, etc.), “feinherb” is always a little bit of a wild card. It tends to mean wine that’s somewhere between dry and off-dry, with a significant acid kick, but it’s not a legally defined term. I’ve had consistently good success with feinherb Riesling as a crab cake pairing, however, as the touch of residual sugar gives the wine more texture while playing up the sweetness of the crab. That sweetness is also welcome should you want to double up on the seasoning, or serve a spicy remoulade. Willi Schaefer is a top old-school-style producer in Germany’s Mosel Valley, and its Graacher Feinherb is electric and alive—the jolt of acidity, all the more present in the 2021 vintage, will cut right through the crab cakes’ crispy fried coating.

2022 Domaine Huet Clos du Bourg Vouvray Sec ($48)

Many Chenins will play well with crab cakes—their trademark honeyed, waxy, golden apple flavors can more than stand up to the meaty intensity of crab. Huet—Vouvray’s benchmark producer—makes particularly elegant iterations of Chenin, which land more towards precision than roundness. Although the domaine produces a range of classic dessert-worthy wines, their “sec” Clos du Bourg is a dry wine that still bears a magical, subtle sweetness. A rush of salinity on the palate evokes that washed-up-ashore freshness, while the warmer 2022 vintage provides a slightly fuller texture to compliment the wine’s more delicate flavors. 

2022 Rafael Palacios "Louro do Bolo" Godello ($27)

An Atlantic-influenced wine region is a natural source for a crab cake accompaniment, and such is certainly the case for Galicia in northwest Spain. Godello is a Spanish white grape that produces wines often likened to Chardonnay—and in the best cases, Burgundy—for their specificity to their terroir and ageability. Renowned winemaker Rafael Palacios in Valdeorras benefits from having his wines compared to Puligny-Montrachet and Meursault, but they also have a somewhat rugged character that’s all their own. With the “Louro do Bolo,” an arresting brininess mingles with the bright citrus flavors, bound together by a surprisingly rich texture. This wine has the easygoing indulgence of a long day spent on the beach.