I admit that I tend to be a little extreme in my fondness for wine and golf. After all, I grew up as a competitive junior golfer in Southern California and went on to write Sideways, the novel (which later became the movie) that set the wine industry on its ear. But it seems to me that almost all sophisticated golfers also possess a taste for fine wine. Every self-respecting (and aren’t they all?) private club and luxury resort has a high-quality wine cellar and a demanding, knowledgeable clientele. Just look at the number of golf stars whose business tentacles stretch into the world of wine. Playing beautiful courses, hitting great shots and celebrating with friends over a glass of great wine: That’s just about as good as it gets.
Which got me to thinking: Just as there are pairings of wine and food, one could imagine a similar teaming up of ideal wines with which to celebrate memorable golf moments. Snake in a fifty-foot putt on eighteen to break eighty for the first time? Well, it’s time to uncork that ’94 Screaming Eagle Napa cab you’ve been saving in your cellar. Hit two OB on the first hole? It might be more appropriate to drown your sorrows in a bottle of plonk merlot. Absurd, yes, but fun anyway—kind of like golf itself.
Looking back at my golf career, I can identify some remarkable episodes that really call out for remarkable wines. I started playing at age eight in San Diego, and golf quickly became my life. In the summer I would be happily deposited at the Stardust Country Club (since redone and renamed Riverwalk Golf Club) to play up to forty-five holes a day. I never took a lesson, rarely practiced and was active in the San Diego Junior Golf Association. When I was twelve, like a lot of my contemporaries, I moved up an age division because the thirteen-year-olds got to matriculate from the pitch-and-putt venues and play regulation courses.
As it happened, my first event was the Stardust Invitational. Not only was it contested on my home course, but with it came a perpetual trophy like the Claret Jug on which the winner’s name would be enshrined forever. (Speaking of the Claret Jug, isn’t it utterly appropriate that golf’s oldest championship trophy is a wine decanter?)
It was an eighteen-hole, one-day event. I had never broken eighty before, but for some inexplicable reason it was one of those mornings in which I started out in a zone and never left it. Every time I looked up, the ball was going exactly where I pictured it would. Putting, I thought the hole looked like a basketball hoop. At the turn I had shot a thirty-seven—an all-time nine-hole low for me—and this at an age when I could only reach half of the par fours in regulation. On the back nine I shot thirty-eight with a bogey on the unreachable (for me) par-three eighteenth for a then-career-best seventy-five.
Before our group (one of the final foursomes) came in, they were ready to hand the trophy to some towheaded hotshot who had carded a seventy-six; there was some scrambling around when I handed in my card. Being presented with that massive trophy—which Phil Mickelson, another Stardust standout, would go on to put his name on more than once—and holding it aloft was a great moment, one I cherish to this day.
At the time I probably celebrated with a Coke, but today, thinking about what wine is worthy of this memory, I hark back to the first great wine I ever drank: a 1967 Beaulieu Vineyard Georges de Latour Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, a blockbuster of a bottle that if properly cellared would probably still hold up today, like that magical round of golf.
From the sublime to the ridiculous: Several years later, on a scorching summer day, I was playing a casual round with some friends at Carlton Oaks Country Club in Santee, some twenty-five infernal miles inland from the ocean. The course has since been redesigned, but back then it was an unwatered, unmanicured goat track. I had recently taken up surfing and, because I was playing wretchedly, I just wanted to pack it in and head to the beach. Miserable, sunburned and sweating through my shirt, I arrived with my buddies at a 180-yard par three on the back—I forget which hole. Since I was probably fifteen over, I just wanted the damn round to be over. I got up, dropped the last ball I had onto the deck and, with no practice swing, bladed a three-iron. "Perfect," I thought sardonically: "Perfect!" I tomahawked my club down the fairway and announced to my derisively howling friends that I was out of there, I quit, basta, no more.
I retrieved my iron en route to the green, but my ball was nowhere to be found. Now I really had a reason to walk off, but as I was trudging off the back of the green in the direction of the clubhouse I heard a shout from one of my playing partners. "Your ball’s in the hole, Rex!" I thought he was kidding and continued walking. "You aced the hole, man!" he shouted more emphatically. I dropped my bag and strode back to the green, expecting a practical joke at my pitiful expense. But by the incredulous looks on their faces I could tell they weren’t kidding. I had made my first legitimate hole in one with one of the worst shots I had ever hit in my life.
What wine could I possibly pair with this memorable (and unmemorable) golf shot? Well, there are certain wines that smell tainted, almost turpentine-like when first opened. They need time to breathe, to open up, to blow off, and then they’re quite drinkable, even transcendent. But one’s first impression is often that they’re corked, or off, that something went wrong in the bottle. I’m thinking specifically of certain Barolos, Riojas and even Côte-Rôties, all of which have a kind of barnyard-y nose upon uncorking but then soften, usually with decanting. That’s it: A 1999 Bricco Rocche Barolo from Ceretto in Piedmont, whose nose-wrinkling first whiff of cowpat turns to black truffle and huckleberry perfection with a little patience.
Moving on. The year was 1995. I was a member of the La Purisima Men’s Club in Lompoc, California. We had a match at Sandpiper Golf Club, a great seaside layout just north of Santa Barbara, against its men’s club, one of the best in the area. I drove up from L.A. the day before and spent a fitful night in a noisy Motel 6. After a few hours of sheet-twisting sleep I showed up at Sandpiper nursing a coffee to try to jump-start my befogged brain. Then the starter announced the pairings: "On the thirteenth tee, Rex Pickett versus Chris Reed." It turned out that our number-one guy hadn’t made the bell and I had been bumped up to the top slot. Worse, that meant I was going to be up against Sandpiper’s club champion, albeit with three shots. Even more dismaying, I’d been suffering from the yips and, in an effort to avert embarrassment, I had splurged on a long putter—but had yet to hit a single practice putt with it.
Like a condemned man being led to the gallows, I trekked out to the par-five thirteenth. I somehow managed to hit the green in regulation and ram in a three-footer for par (and a halve), the long putter preventing my seriously twitching hands from jerking the ball into the ocean. "Hmm," I thought. I started to relax just a little. It was a beautiful morning and, what the hell, it wasn’t the U.S. Open; I didn’t do this for a living. The match ebbed and flowed, but by the eighth hole—the fourteenth of our match—I had used up my three shots and was one down. Respectable, I suppose, but now it promised to get ugly; I could feel it in my constricted throat.
The eighth at Sandpiper is a straightforward par four, and we both drove it in the fairway next to one another. Reed, with that silky swing of his, bunted a nine-iron in about eight feet below the hole. He smiled thinly at me as if to say, "Nice knowing you, Pickett." With an adrenaline rush born of too much caffeine and taut nerves, I hit a nine-iron that flew twenty-five feet above the hole. I picked up my bag, slung it over my shoulder and started walking forward. My ball, which I thought had come to a stop, started trickling ever so slowly backward. I kept walking; the ball picked up pace. The next thing I knew, it had disappeared into the hole. A cry went up from my La Purisima partner. We got to the green and I conceded the club champ his birdie. But he was so shaken he blocked his next drive into the trees and had to take an unplayable, and my routine par won the hole. He never recovered. I closed him out 2-and-1 and our team triumphed by one point.
Sometimes a wine hits you so unexpectedly, as did that shot on Sandpiper’s eighth, that all you can do is stare into your glass, reach deep for the metaphors and extravagantly exult to all present. For me that wine is a Kistler chardonnay—any year, any single vineyard. It’s rich, exciting and satisfying in ways that are difficult to articulate. I’m not a chard guy, but Steve Kistler, a superb Sonoma winemaker, makes the best in the country, his wines rivaling the most ethereal white Burgundies. Perfect for an unexpectedly perfect shot.
But my favorite wine and golf pairing dates to another round I played in the mid-nineties, a sixteen-man skins game at Mountaingate Country Club, an okay twenty-seven-hole private course built on a former trash dump in the Santa Monica Mountains. It’s billy-goat golf at its most mediocre.
I was playing decently but had no idea where I stood in the skins contest (which was probably a blessing, since I was practically dead broke at the time) when we came to the seventeenth, a 440-yard par four dead into the wind. I drove it about 240 straight down the fairway. I had exactly 208 yards to a back pin, perched on the second tier of a small, severely sloping green. A three-iron seemed like the right arrow. I aimed straight at the left bunker and flushed it with just the slight blush (forgive me) of a fade. The ball landed on the upper tier on the fly and then went sideways and...and...into the hole for an eagle two!
It was the single greatest shot I’ve ever hit and would have to be paired with the single greatest wine I’ve ever enjoyed. Okay, I haven’t been lucky enough to drink the very finest wines in the world, but I once shared a bottle of 1982 Château Latour, one of the five first-growth Bordeaux, a full-throttle, mostly cabernet wine, a vintage that Robert Parker rates 100. It was pure velvet in the mouth and flawless on the finish, just like that three-iron. A bottle today will set you back $1,300, about what I made on those skins.
Finally, as my imagination continues to pullulate with great shots and their wine pairings, there are some truly memorable ones from all the golf tournaments I’ve watched in my day.
The first one that springs to mind is Tiger Woods’s preternatural chip-in on the sixteenth hole at the 2005 Masters. That’s got to be a 1990 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche, one of the great red Burgundies ever made, from one of the planet’s most famous vineyards.
What about Jack Nicklaus’s one-iron to the seventeenth green in a strong headwind at Pebble in the 1972 U.S. Open? So perfectly struck I have to liken it to one of New Zealand’s finest sauvignon blancs, say a 2005 Cloudy Bay: crisp, unadorned, exacting. Or Gene Sarazen’s double eagle at Augusta’s fifteenth—the shot heard round the world? Has to be an ancient vintage port; let’s face it, we’re drinking a memory here.
Then there are the ignominious shots and the wines I hope never to uncork. If Charles Shaw—more infamously known as the winery that produces Two Buck Chuck—were, God forbid, to put out a white zinfandel, then that bottle would go to Jean Van de Velde for his performance at the 1999 British Open at Carnoustie, which was even worse than Phil Mickleson’s seventy-second hole meltdown at Winged Foot last summer. Needing a double bogey or better to become the only Frenchman (an irony when we consider wine and golf pairings) to win a major championship, he proceeded to butcher the last hole—seeing it on tape is like watching the Hindenburg burn. Like that imaginary white zin, it makes you sick just thinking about it. Hey, Jean, à votre santé!
A Pro’s Nose: Duffy Waldorf
Duffy Waldorf is a serious wine collector, which is not to say he’s overly serious about wine. The two bottles on prime display in his climate-controlled, earthquake-ready cellar in Northridge, California, are kitsch classics Thunderbird and Ripple. But Waldorf’s reserve of more than eighteen hundred carefully chosen bottles, estimated to be worth about $100,000, marks him as one of the PGA Tour’s top oenophiles.
"I have no idea what kind of golfer Duffy is, but he’s about a plus-five as a wine guy," says Kirk Triplett, one of several Tour players familiar with Waldorf’s collection. "Just when you think you know a little about wine, Duffy will pull out some incredibly obscure shiraz from Australia that you can never find again." Paul Smith, who owns Woodland Hills Wine Company in Los Angeles and who recently accompanied Waldorf on a tasting tour around Northern California (for charity), adds, "Duffy has an almost unparalleled palate in that he recognizes exceptional wines without caring the least about ratings. The man just knows wine."
Waldorf’s hobby-turned-obsession began shortly after he sampled a bottle of 1976 Château Lafite Rothschild in 1986, the year he turned pro. "I’d always been a beer drinker, but I wanted something I could savor with friends after great days and not so great days on the course," he says, adding that fellow Tour players including Triplett, Jeff Sluman and Brad Faxon are usually happy to clink glasses with him.
Waldorf’s choicest bottles? A 1952 Borgogno Barolo Riserva from Italy’s Piedmont region, a 1990 Château Angélus Saint-Emilion from Bordeaux and a stunning array of "impossible to find" syrahs from California cult winemaker Sine Qua Non. He also collects white wines, pointing to a new favorite: a 2005 Jackson Estate Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand’s Marlborough region. "I have to keep my wife happy," he says.
—David Hochman
Private Clubs: Which Has the Best Cellar?
At many of the best clubs, whiskey and beer, long the post-round drinks of choice, have taken a back seat to wine. Climate-controlled cellars full of hard-to-find labels are the new sine qua non. "Golfers tend to be very choosy when it comes to finer things like wine, particularly at private facilities," says Paul Golden, senior vice president of ClubCorp, which recently launched a wine program that gives members at participating clubs access to limited-production wines. "Even after a horrible day on the course, things don’t look so bad after a few choice corks are popped." Here are the top six après-fairway cellars for members and lucky guests only.
Augusta National
Augusta, Georgia
No surprise: The home of the Masters is also the home of the hands-down most impressive wine collection in golf. One wine distributor familiar with the cellar says "it blows the course out of the water. They’ve got the best of the best. Period." The reason is simple: money. Augusta spends top dollar for vintages that can’t be found anywhere else. As well, the club buys a lot of "verticals," winespeak for consecutive vintages of a particular wine, and it’s been doing so for decades. Another importer who sells to Augusta adds: "It’s all about quality, the depths of vintages and back vintages."
Bel-Air Country Club
Los Angeles, California
The celebrities and media moguls who play Bel-Air have seen and tasted it all, which is why beverage director Dean McKinney supplements the usual standouts (like his verticals of Château Rothschilds and bottles from powerhouse producers like Heitz Cellars and Cakebread) with what McKinney calls "the neighborhood wine" from Moraga Vineyards, an eight-acre patch of grapes opposite the Getty Museum. Moraga produces tiny quantities of cabernets and merlots that are as rich and powerful as the boldface duffers who drink them.
Mayacama Golf Club
Santa Rosa, California
Augusta may have the premier cellar, but no private club provides as thorough a wine experience as Mayacama. Each new member is assigned not just a golf locker but also a wine locker, located in an underground grotto containing many vintages rarely seen outside the grounds. Every year, the club’s thirty-one vintner members—including Jess Jackson of Kendall-Jackson, Bill Harlan of Harlan Estates and cult winemaker Helen Turley—each provide a barrel of their premier vintage. In season, the winemakers host intimate tastings every two weeks, which could mean sipping from the barrel with Kerry Murphy of DuMOL "or dinner for twelve at Joseph Phelps Winery with Bill Phelps himself," says food and beverage director Katie Ciocca. The all-vintner tasting in April lets members and guests sample head-spinning rarities that your local wine snob would kill to try.
Naples National Golf Club
Naples, Florida
What distinguishes the wine list at Naples National? Head sommelier Sean Fulton thinks small. "I search for quality-driven, small-production wines," he says, rattling off under-the-radar labels like Husic and David Arthur Vineyards. Besides hosting regular tastings, he’s considering wine seminars and is "bringing in more international wines that will show the members different taste profiles."
Roaring Fork Club
Aspen, Colorado
Although the Jack Nicklaus course is a high-altitude ball cracker, most everything at the Fork is "secondary to making the wine taste great," says Steve Humble, the club’s wine director. Humble’s tight relations with noted winemakers gives him access to true rarities like boutique wines from Sine Qua Non in Ventura, California, and Spanish jaw-droppers from Ribera del Duero. The club hosts regular wine dinners at which superstar vintners such as Robert Foley uncork bottles "you normally only find on the gray market," Humble says.
The Vintage Club
Indian Wells, California
Twenty-five-hundred bottles behind glass in the main dining room only hint at the five thousand stashed elsewhere for the well-named club’s 460 members, a number of whom own vineyards themselves. (The late Ely Callaway, a winemaker turned club maker, was a member.) Al Castro, the clubhouse manager, presides over nearly 700 selections and a few true showstoppers (including the 1979 Domaine de la Romanée-Conti La Tâche) as well as hundreds of great wines-to-be. "We buy first-growth futures from the best producers and just lay them down until they’re ready," says Castro, "so members get to see the great things to come."
—D. H.
Player-Vintners: Who’s Got Game?
We’re undoubtedly in the age of celebrity marketing: Get famous and you’ll soon find that your name can sell anything from doughnuts to SUVs. So it’s no surprise that there’s been a proliferation of wines produced by some of the world’s top golfers. What is surprising is how good some of these projects have turned out to be. Most celebrity wines fall into a category that includes, for instance, Vince Vineyards, owned by Vince Neil of the rock band Mötley Crüe (the fact that Neil has a tattoo of his winery’s logo doesn’t seem to have improved the quality of the wine much, alas).
PGA Tour players such as Nick Faldo, on the other hand, mostly apply the same high standards to their wines that they do to their games. The result is that the best of these bottlings, like Greg Norman’s intense Reserve Shiraz or Ernie Els’s Stellenbosch red, a stylish cabernet sauvignon-based blend, can compete with the world’s top wines (and have garnered scores in the wine press to prove it).
Lately, even the PGA Tour itself has gotten into the business. Ed Moorhouse, one of the Tour’s chief operating officers and a wine collector himself, says production of its labels (including Commissioners Private Reserve and Champions Estate) will grow to twenty-six thousand a year. "It was a lifestyle marketing decision for us," he says, but adds that he and commissioner Tim Finchem enjoy getting together every February in Pebble Beach with winemaker Brian Zealear to taste barrel samples.
More projects are in the works. A passel of South African reds under Gary Player’s name have been aging for the past couple of years in a cellar in Stellenbosch, awaiting release later this year. Even John Daly will roll out a wine in coming months; whether it goes better with a steak au poivre or a double cheeseburger at Hooters remains to be seen.
Herewith, the best the pro golf world has to offer, with my ratings and tasting notes. —Ray Isle
Greg Norman Estates Reserve Shiraz 2000
$45 • Score: 93
Padthaway, Australia
Potent blackberry jam on the nose and lots of juicy blackberry fruit ending on a black-coffee note. Powerhouse shiraz. Impressive stuff.
Ernie Els Bourdeaux-style blend 2003
$90 • Score: 92
Stellenbosch, South Africa
Blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, cabernet franc, petite verdot and malbec. Tobacco-y aroma and brooding dark fruit. Will be superb.
Mike Weir Estate Icewine Vidal 2005
$42 • Score: 92
Niagara Peninsula, Canada
Succulent, gorgeously rich dessert wine: viscous texture, intense peach and honeysuckle aromas and flavors that recall super-ripe golden apples.
Nick Faldo Shiraz 2003
$15 • Score: 91
Coonawarra, Australia
Classically Coonawarra: a touch of eucalyptus/menthol overlaid on bright, juicy raspberry fruit.
Commissioners Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2003
$44 • Score: 91
Dry Creek Valley, California
Cherry cider aroma; seriously ripe vintage. Big, lush cabernet that’s full of super-ripe black plum flavor.
Champions Select Zinfandel 2004
$24 • Score: 90
Dry Creek Valley, California
Jammy, with a hit of cinnamon when you sniff it. Tastes like a rich boysenberry liqueur.
Greg Norman Estates Sparkling Chardonnay/ Pinot Noir (nonvintage)
$15 • Score: 90
Australia
Crisp, zesty sparkler. Apple scent and lemony flavor.
Commissioners Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2002
$60 • Score: 89
Napa Valley, California
Black cherries and some seriously tough tannins. Needs time.
David Frost Wines Par Excellence Meritage 2002
$45 • Score: 89
Paarl, South Africa
Ruddy black-red color, with the scent of black currants and a firm tannic structure. Spicy on the end from the cabernet franc in the blend.
Commissioners Private Reserve Chardonnay 2004
$38 • Score: 88
Sonoma County, California
Intense, spicy-vanilla French oak up front followed by creamy lemon curd and apple flavor. Full-throttle California chardonnay, if a bit over the top.
Mike Weir Estate Chardonnay 2005
$16 • Score: 88
Niagara Peninsula, Canada
Zesty, cool-climate chardonnay with refreshing lemon curd flavors and a touch of vanilla oak.
Greg Norman Chardonnay 2004
$13 • Score: 88
Victoria, Australia
Aussie chardonnay: ripe pineapple aromas, rich tropical fruit flavors and spicy oak notes.
Champions Select Cabernet Sauvignon 2004
$30 • Score: 87
Alexander Valley, California
Red currant fruit with a touch of bell pepper. A little austere and leafy.
Greg Norman Pinot Noir 2004
$15 • Score: 86
Santa Barbara, California
Cherry-berry aromas and some sweet berry fruit. Not complex, but pleasant for the price.
Arnold Palmer Chardonnay 2004
$15 • Score: 84
California
Simple, quaffable chardonnay. Ripe pineapples and apricots. A little bland and fat.
Golf Resorts: Which Rule the Wine Roost?
Today every quality golf resort offers an excellent wine list. But these four offer complete wine immersions, and none more so than the Phoenician, tucked onto the south slope of Camelback Mountain in Phoenix. You may come for the golf, but by the time you leave, it will be the wines you tasted that linger in your mind.
The Phoenician
Phoenix, Arizona; 800-888-8234; thephoenician.com
The Phoenician is among the most elegant golf resorts in the Southwest. It’s such a haven for oenophiles, however, that it might fairly be called a wine resort. True, it is renowned for its highly rated twenty-seven holes of golf, its art- and sculpture-filled lobby, and its sybaritic Centre for Well-Being —but how does a $3 million, 44,000-bottle, 2,500-label wine cellar sound? What’s more, talk to any number of Phoenician employees, from your minibar stocker to your cabana boy, and you’ll likely find a knowledgeable interlocutor on the subject of wine.
In 2005, the Phoenician’s director of wine, Sean Marron, encouraged staff members in every department to enrich their lives through wine education—by studying to pass certification requirements from the British Court of Master Sommeliers. Sixteen Phoenician staffers took the introductory course last year, and Marron is angling to double that number this year. "Many of our guests are wine lovers," explains Marron, "and we were looking for another way to engage them."
Among golf resorts, the Phoenician’s wine credentials are second to none. Greg Tresner, one of only about seventy-five master sommeliers in the country, presides at Mary Elaine’s, the resort’s top-rated restaurant. Mary Elaine’s has a Grand Award wine list, the highest honor bestowed by Wine Spectator, and has thrice been nominated for a James Beard Award for Wine Service, the Oscar of that industry.
Between sips of and chats about wine, resort guests can play some of the best desert golf around. At just 3,250 yards, Oasis is the longest of the three nines, but what these holes miss in length they make up for by demanding precise shots over mountainside terrain. And don’t be surprised if the fellow tending to the cactus happens to change the subject from golf to grand crus and late harvests. "We’re trying to do something no one else has done," says Marron of the Phoenician’s employee sommelier program. "That’s what brings people back." —Joe Passov
Coeur d’Alene Golf & Spa Resort
Idaho; 800-688-5253; cdaresort.com
The daily tour through the impressive cellar at Coeur d’Alene is like a Disneyland ride for wine lovers. The $2 million collection features more than twenty thousand bottles, including multiple vintages of Château Latour Bordeaux dating back to 1945 and hard-to-find dazzlers from the Pacific Northwest. All of which is authoritatively organized on a ninety-five-page wine list, "in case you don’t want to talk to the six-foot-one, two-hundred-and-forty-pound wine steward," jokes Coeur d’Alene’s imposing Eric Cook.
Meadowood Napa Valley
St. Helena, California; 800-458-8080; meadowood.com
After walking the pretty but daunting nine-hole course, resort guests and members at this luxe wine-country Relais & Châteaux property are rewarded with the most extensive Napa wine selection on the planet. The list at The Restaurant sports four hundred labels of Napa cabernet alone. No wonder the sippers at the next table have names like Mondavi and Cakebread.
Sea Island Resort
Georgia; 888-732-4752; seaisland.com
Members and guests are privy to three world-class courses and two out-of-this-world cellars that hold close to nineteen thousand bottles. "A lot of places forget about the wine when they build a great golf course, but we take it just as seriously," says Heath Porter, one of the three sommeliers at the Cloister, the voluptuous new hotel that opened its doors last year (the accommodations at the Lodge at the golf club are nearly as princely). Just how seriously? An 1840 Ferreira port lists for $3,300. Guests can reserve tables in the cellar catacombs with a ceiling made of heart pine dating back even earlier than that bottle of Ferreira. And Porter serves limited-production wines by the glass. "Georgia peaches with a glass of ’99 Château d’Yquem Sauternes, at $45 a glass, after a lamb chop," he sighs. "How can you beat that?" —David Hochman
Great Wine Trips: California
Napa Valley and Sonoma County
The state’s premier wine meccas also offer fine golf that’s worthy of a pilgrimage.
Where to Play: Silverado Resort (silveradoresort.com) has two fine Robert Trent Jones Jr. tracks. Guests of the Sonoma Mission Inn (see below) can play the private Sonoma Golf Club (sonomagolfclub.com). Also try the scenic Johnny Miller-designed Eagle Vines (eaglevinesgolfclub.com) and the twenty-seven holes with vineyard views at Chardonnay Golf Club (chardonnaygolfclub.com).
Where to Taste: Sample fifteen of the best local wines daily at Napa Wine Company (napawineco.com). A good, inexpensive vineyard experience awaits at the Kendall-Jackson Wine Center (866-287-9818) in Sonoma County; fancier are Far Niente (farniente.com), Robert Mondavi Winery (robertmondaviwinery.com) and Silver Oak Cellars (silveroak.com).
Where to Stay: The Sonoma Mission Inn (fairmont.com/sonoma) is extremely well appointed. Calistoga Ranch (calistogaranch.com) is a good boutique choice, and the Silverado Resort (silveradoresort.com) is a large resort with all the deluxe amenities.
Tour Operator: Sonoma Swing (sonomaswing.com)
Monterey County
Less recognized by oenophiles than Napa or Sonoma, Monterey County is actually a larger region (with over 40,000 acres planted). The golf, of course, has few peers.
Where to Play: Pebble Beach Golf Links (pebblebeach.com) needs no explanation. A neighbor, Spyglass Hill Golf Course (pebblebeach.com), is also a must play; another, the Links at Spanish Bay (pebblebeach.com) is fun if you have time. Other excellent layouts include the courses at Quail Lodge (quaillodge.com) and Carmel Valley Ranch (carmelvalleyranch.com).
Where to Taste: A Taste of Monterey (831-646-5446) has locations in Monterey and Salinas offering wines from the Monterey County Vintners and Growers’ Association, which includes top vineyards Robert Talbott and Morgan.
Where to Stay: The Lodge at Pebble Beach (pebblebeach.com) is beloved for its stunning views and sunsets over Carmel Bay. The Inn at Spanish Bay (pebblebeach.com) offers in-room fireplaces and ocean-view rooms. Quail Lodge (quaillodge.com) and Carmel Valley Ranch (carmelvalleyranch.com) also offer first-class accommodations and spa services.
Tour Operator: Check out offers at Ag Venture Tours (whps.com/agtours).
—Meg Nolan
Great Wine Trips: Australia and New Zealand
South Australia
Producing the majority of the country’s wine, South Australia has seventeen different regions, about five of which are located outside the greater Adelaide area, where the golf is all private yet open to international visitors.
Where to Play: Royal Adelaide Golf Club (royaladelaidegolf.com.au) is an Alister MacKenzie links. The distinctly elevated greens of Kooyonga Golf Club (kooyongagolf.com.au) are hard to hit on windy (i.e., most) days.
Where to Taste: A must drink is the famous Penfolds shiraz at one of the legendary label’s wineries in Adelaide or the Barossa Valley (penfolds.com.au). The Bridgewater Mill (bridgewatermill.com.au) houses the tasting room for Petaluma. Also look for smaller vineyards like Clarendon Hills in Blewitt Springs and Tim Adams in Clare Valley.
Where to Stay: A favorite B&B (the way to go here) is The Orangerie (orangerie.com.au); a more romantic stay can be had at the Friendly Meeting Chapel (adelaideheritage.com).
Tour Operators: Check out golfwine australia.com, tastesa.com.au and golftourismaustralia.com.
New Zealand, North Island
Initially known for its sauvignon blanc, New Zealand’s wine industry is expanding, and its spectacular scenery often makes for spectacular golf.
Where to Play: The must plays are Cape Kidnappers (011-64/6875-1900, capekidnappers.com), the photogenic Tom Doak track, and Kauri Cliffs (011-64/9407-0060, kauricliffs.com), another cliffside course where every shot requires precision and focus.
Where to Taste: For a crisp glass of top pinot gris, head to Marsden Estate (marsdenestate.co.nz) and stay for lunch. The Te Mata Estate Winery (temata.co.nz, pictured above), is N.Z.’s oldest winery and, like the Craggy Range Winery (craggyrange.com), is an easy visit after playing nearby Cape Kidnappers.
Where to Stay: The excellent Lodge at Kauri Cliffs (kauricliffs.com) is located on the scenic Bay of Islands, near the Northland wine region. Another luxury option is Huka Lodge (hukalodge.com), a true retreat that offers helicopter transfers for arrivals and departures.
Tour Operators: Lookout Point (lookoutpoint.co.nz)
—M.N.
Great Wine Trips: Europe
Catalonia
This stretch of Spanish coastline north of Barcelona is world-renowned as one of the best places to eat and drink wine—and play golf.
Where to Play: Best are the two eighteens at PGA Golf de Catalunya in Girona (pgacatalunya.com). Empordà Golf Club (empordagolf.com) is also worthy, as is Golf Serres de Pals (golfserresdepals.com), a links/parkland hybrid and a great walking course.
Where to Taste: Visit Clos Mogador (011-34/97783-9171) to see grapes being crushed with an olive press. Also charming is Clos de l’Obac (costersdelsiurana.com). El Bulli (011-34/97215-0457), booked far in advance, has more than once been proclaimed the world’s best restaurant.
Where to Stay: Fine choices abound, but we like Hotel Mas de Torrent (mastorrent.com), a converted country house, and Hostal de La Gavina (lagavina.com), overlooking the sea.
Wine Tour Operator: U.K. School of Golf (ukschoolofgolf.com)
Rhône Valley and Geneva
This land’s daunting slopes are ideal for cultivating the syrah grape and designing tough golf holes.
Where to Play: The Evian Masters Golf Club (011-33/45026-8500) is host of an annual LPGA event. Also play Geneva Golf Club (011-41/22735-7540) and Golf de Chamonix (011-33/45053-0628), a Robert Trent Jones Sr. design. Golf Club de Lyon (golfclubdelyon.com) offers two challenging courses.
Where to Taste: Visited celebrated, influential M. Chapoutier (chapoutier.com) in Tain l’Hermitage. Also try E.Guigal (guigal.com) in Ampuis for wines from Condrieu and Côte-Rôtie.
Where to Stay: The Evian Royal Ermitage (royalparcevian.com) offers views of Lake Geneva. On a hilltop are the cottages of Les Deux Abbesses (lesdeuxabbesses.com). In Lyon, Villa Florentine (villaflorentine.com) is a classic French villa.
Wine Tour Operator: French Wine Explorers (wine-tours-france.com)
—M.N.
Great Wine Trips: South Africa
The Western Cape
Here, maritime and mountain terrain plus an ideal climate add up to wines as good as legendary golfers (and winemakers) Ernie Els and Gary Player.
Where to Play: Highlights start with Pearl Valley Signature Golf Estate (pearlvalley.co.za) in Franschhoek, a relatively new (2003) Jack Nicklaus design with well-manicured bent-grass greens. Another gem is Royal Cape Golf Club (royalcapegolf.co.za), a parkland course with narrow fairways and multiple water hazards that has hosted ten South African Opens. Also hit Arabella Golf Club (arabellagolf.co.za), a veritable nature preserve with over a hundred species of birds.
Where to Taste: The two main wine regions on the Western Cape are Stellenbosch and Constantia. There are more than a hundred wine producers in Stellenbosch, but we recommend Spier Winelands Estate (spier.co.za), which is enormous, beautiful and known for its award-winning cabernet sauvignons and merlots. In Constantia visit the Klein Constantia Estate (kleinconstantia.com), recognized for reviving sweet wines on the Cape, such as the famed Vin de Constance.
Where to Stay: Straightway Head (straightwayhead.com) is a comfortable, moderate family-owned hotel thirty minutes outside Cape Town. Western Cape Hotel & Spa (westerncapehotelandspa.co.za), at the Arabella Country Estate, is a high-end, luxury-spa choice.
Tour Operators Check out offers at prowinetours.co.za, vintagecape.co.za and constantiawineroute.co.za.
—M.N.
