The top restaurant at the Kiawah Island Golf Resort in South Carolina, The Ocean Room offers a smart modern update of the classic steakhouse. Based on locally sourced ingredients, including a variety of cuts of Angus and 21-day dry-aged beef, lobster, and other seafood, the menu, by chef Jason Rheinwald, is seasonally changing—matched by one of the smartest wine programs around.
Featuring more than 1,000 labels, it’s cleverly arranged by grape variety and then region, allowing guests both novice and expert alike to negotiate its remarkable selection of, say, Bordeaux and California Cabernet Sauvignon, via bottles from Washington, the Lebanon, Spain, and Italy’s Super Tuscans. The judges were impressed, too, by the quality and variety of its by-the-glass offer, where Joaquín Rebolledo Godello from Valdeorras in Galicia, and Selbach Spätlese Riesling from Germany’s Saar Valley, mix with top Nebbiolo from GD Vajra in Piedmont, and Château de St-Cosme’s superior Côte du Rhône. Overall, this is an impressively long list with personality to spare.