Have a vine time in Charlotte: The Wells Fargo Championship, Quail Hollow Club, May 9-12, 2024
Click on image for location details
I have to say I was more excited by what I saw in Charlotte’s restaurant scene than many larger markets. There’s a palpable energy evident, with a real sense of possibility and adventure. If the restaurants are as good as they look on (virtual) paper, fans attending the Wells Fargo Championship are in for a real treat. With that said, I found only one classic wine list in the city, but plenty of fun, smaller, carefully chosen lists that match the eclectic cuisine.
Unfortunately, retail lags considerably. The market seems to favor trendy, small boutiques with limited inventory and almost an aversion to higher priced wines, which might be an advantage based on your budget but won’t help if you are in the mood for something special. It’s also possible that some stores don’t want to put their entire selections online, but the eCommerce shopping experience suffers as a result.
At retail:
Petit Philippe gets a nod for boiling it down to the essence. The inventory isn’t super-high end (except for a few white Burgs) or going to overwhelm you with choices, but most everything seems carefully curated to provide authenticity and quality. It’s unfortunately weak in Piedmont.
You can try Bond Street and Assorted Table if you have enough time to walk in and look around. Assorted Table doesn’t reveal a single bottle in stock but says “we may not be the biggest but we’re the coolest.” That seems to be the general vibe of all these places. It appears that many Charlotte wine bars have substantial retail operations and often you can buy a bottle at retail and drink it on premise for a small corkage charge. Several are mentioned below.
Restaurants:
Normally we’ve come to expect that you can find a steakhouse with a passable list at almost any PGA Tour stop. In Charlotte, the genre is totally dominated by Big Steak, like all the national chains collaborated to make it a test market. Go there if you must, but we support local and at most regional stores, so you’re on your own if that’s your game.
The Bohemian wine bar’s list is sufficiently broad, is full of quirky surprises, and you’ll have to work hard to spend more than $150. Find me somewhere else in the Southeast with eight tannats.
Ok, Barcelona wine bar has seven tannats if I counted them right, along with a very fine Spanish list conveniently breaking out a broad array of traditional vs. modern Rioja styles. Good if small representation from around the world.
Fig Tree has the best list we could find in Charlotte, really the only one with a world-class presentation of top-shelf bottles and multiple strengths including super selections in cab/meritage and Bordeaux. Prices for the trophies are commensurately high, but there’s an intriguing suggestion that you can take anything home at some other “retail” price, so I’m guessing this is the place where collectors congregate as well.
Finally, I read that Peppervine has a fine list with nearly 500 wines, but they don’t post anything but a slightly odd by-the-glass list. It has the virtue of being close to Quail Hollow if you’re heading north towards Charlotte. Might be worth taking a peek on your way downtown. In the same vein, Dean’s Italian Steakhouse is reputed to have over 300 selections on hand, but it’s sleight of hand cause they only post a perfunctory by-the-glass list.
