After this weekend, my heart just might be in the Highlands (post 1 of 3)
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Post 1 of 3 of our High Hampton weekend!
The next few posts are all about a fairly amazing trip my wife Dio and I took to the Highlands area of North Carolina, that was absolutely packed with an eclectic mix of phenomenal food, wonderful wine and excellent company.
Dio is really into fashion, and a friend she’s made through fashion events invited us to a dinner at one of our favorite Atlanta restaurants: Atlas. We’d been there several times, and jumped at the chance to go again, and to meet new people who also appreciate wine. I didn’t plan to blog about that night. And while I will often bring wine from my own collection to share with others, I’m not always thinking of it as a “tasting experience.” Sometimes it’s just about having a nice visit and a nice meal with nice people.
I’d asked in advance what sort of wine they all preferred. The answer? Pinot Noir and Grenache. So, without even telling the other guests, I selected four bottles from my cellar: a Sonoma Coast Pinot, a really nice Bordeaux, a lovely Hungarian dessert wine and an especially interesting wine I love introducing people to. It’s so random a lot of folks don’t even know it exists: Charles Heidsieck Coteaux Champenois Ambonnay Rouge from the 2019 vintage.
That’s what wine’s all about, you know? Sharing with people; Making conversation. Sometimes, how one first falls in love with a wine makes for a great story. And I love storytelling.
A few days after that dinner, Dio’s friend wanted to introduce us to her cousins. They have a home in the High Hampton Resort Property in Cashiers, N.C., and they too are passionate about wine. We jumped at the chance to visit a part of a state we love that we’d never been to before. I immediately began to plan what wine I’d bring to this three-day weekend.
I had no idea what sort of cuisine we’d be partaking in, or how many opportunities we’d have to taste and drink with these fellow enthusiasts. But in truth, I long ago started routinely traveling with wine. Whether flying or driving, I put thought into what I carry with me. I like to have at least one bottle in the hotel room. If we wind up dining out, I can always bring that along. For folks who don’t care as much about wine as I do, this might seem odd or extravagant. But look at it this way: I love wine. I won’t have to worry about the quality or depth of the selection at a given restaurant. I’m fine with paying a corkage fee, if I get to drink what I know I enjoy. Plus, I won’t wind up paying three times retail price for a wine I’m not thrilled with.
Using CellarTracker’s “In My Cellar” search tool, I decided on 18 different wines from my collection. Now, don’t get me wrong. I didn’t think we’d actually drink anywhere near that much. But I wanted to make sure we had a lot of options to choose from, so I brought a bunch of reds and two whites.
I always use VinGardeValises: special, extra-sturdy suitcases designed for safely transporting wine. They boast patented removable inserts that fit the bottles tightly and cushion them in case of a sudden fall. They’re great. I put all the reds in Valises, and any whites that needed to be chilled I throw into a cooler.
It’s a two-and-a-half hour drive from our home to Cashiers. We check into this wonderful, 100-year-old building, thrilled to find our room afforded us a terrific view of the entire property. But my mind was fixed on getting the wine out of the suitcases as quickly as possible.
Why? Because a lot of these bottles had sediment in them. You always want to give the wine plenty of time for the sediment to settle to the bottom. That way, you don’t need to filter it out, lest sediment negatively impact the taste. So, I unpack all 18 wines and arrange them by country of origin.
Why? Because I’m a wine nerd! Here’s what that looked like.
I also brought along pretty much anything I might need for the proper presentation of these wines: decanters, wine preservation gadgets, filters, aerators, wine bags for carrying bottles, even a Coravin. (That’s a special, high-tech mechanism which allows you to extract just a tiny bit of wine to taste, without ever actually removing the cork, and which uses argon gas to prevent any oxygen from entering the bottle in the process — thus leaving it technically unopened.)
Because we’d already imbibed a good bit earlier in the week, I’d decided to not drink any alcohol that evening. I mean, I love wine, but I don’t drink every night. I take a break from it often.
However, that night, Dio and I wind up at this Italian place in Highlands, N.C. called Ristorante Paoletti. The meal was wonderful, and by the end of dinner I was kicking myself for not ordering any wine. Because their wine list was truly impressive. And, an incredibly knowledgeable Somm was talking to the folks behind us. I really wanted to turn around and join the conversation, but I never even met the guy, because I didn’t order any wine!
If we ever return to this property, we are definitely headed back to Ristorante Paoletti, and I’ll either order some wines or bring my own…
The next day we meet our friends for lunch at The Tavern — a cute casual restaurant on the bottom floor of the inn. I’d not brought any wine because it was lunch. But when their cousins (and their kids) showed up, the conversation turned to, “What are we going to get?” Lo and behold, on the bar menu they offered Talley Chardonnay.
As luck would have it, that’s one of our favorite wineries! We’d visited there for my birthday, just three months prior. I have a bunch of Talley in my cellar, and know just how brilliant it is. I said, “This is what we’re getting.”
We drank a bottle of Talley with the appetizers, then ordered pizza. I said, “If everyone is okay with a red, I have something from the Tuscan winery we’ve invested in that would be perfect with this.” We’re quite proud of being associated with La Caccia di San Giovanni, so I’d brought a couple of bottles to either drink or give as gifts. It did go great with the pizza.
We then learned we’d be having dinner on the property at Halstead House, and that the restaurant was featuring a Thai night. Immediately, I was thrown for a bit of a loop. I’d figured we’d be eating more traditional savory meals like steak or Italian cuisine. I’d never paired wines with Thai food before, because it’s not something I typically eat. So, I just did what any Somm would do… I Googled “What wines pair well with Thai food?” You can call it cheating, but I call it “teaching myself as I go.”
Turns out certain whites go well with Thai, but if you’re going with a red, it’s best it has less alcohol and fewer tannins, as both conflict with the spices and seasonings in the dishes. With that in mind, I chose the 2018 Egly-Ouriet Coteaux Champenois Ambonnay Rouge — similar to the wine everyone had enjoyed a few weeks earlier when I’d shared an Ambonnay Rouge from a different producer at Atlas.
This type of wine fascinates me, because it’s an ultrarare still red wine made in Champagne! Most folks don’t even know such a thing exists. I only learned of it by chance a couple of years ago at a Sommelier Guild of Atlanta event when someone just back from France brought a bottle with them. I grabbed that plus one of the two whites: 2019 Le Petit Cheval Bordeaux Blanc (we’d visited the Cheval Blanc property last year and are now huge fans). Our friend’s cousin is really into Spanish wines, and they brought two of those as well.
My selections were both big hits. But, if I ever want to drink one of them again anytime soon, I’ll have to head back to France and see if they’ll let me have more Egly-Ouriet Ambonnay Rouge. It’s so rare and limited they only let me buy one bottle over there! It felt really good to share such a hard-to-obtain wine with friends — especially friends who appreciate such things.
The food was all served family-style, and was great as well. My meal was actually different from everyone else’s, because the curry dishes had seafood in them, which I’m allergic to. They brought me chicken teriyaki instead, and while pairing that with a rare Pinot Noir made in Champagne was arguably a bizarre combination, they complemented each other quite well. I would never in a million years have thought to put those two together. But here’s to happy accidents!
