Wine Talk: Author Elin Hilderbrand Shares Her Wine Passions

Author Elin Hilderbrand has published more than two dozen books, most of which are set on the island of Nantucket, Mass., where she has lived since 1993. Dubbed "Queen of the Beach Reads" by New York Magazine, Hilderbrand has sold more than 20 million books. Her fans are numerous and passionate, dubbing themselves "Hilderbabes," and have been known to travel to Nantucket from far and wide to live their favorite beach-read moments.

Hilderbrand discovered her affection for wine in her early twenties, after moving to Nantucket. She credits exceptional local restaurants with her food and wine education, as well as inspiring countless scenes from her novels. Her most recent book, The Five-Star Weekend, tells the story of a famed food blogger who copes with tragedy by bringing her best friends together for a fun weekend of mouthwatering meals, cold bottles of Veuve Clicquot and Whispering Angel and, of course, a healthy dose of drama.

Wine Spectator: Food and wine play a big role in most of your books—the heroine in Five Star Weekend is a food blogger. And there's The Blue Bistro and The Castaways, and so many great wine scenes over the years. Do you have a favorite food and wine pairing of your own?

I'm not sure if I've written about this one or not, and I hesitate to even say it, but I will: The perfect pairing is Champagne and potato chips with caviar. That is the perfect pairing. And I don't eat caviar [otherwise]. I probably order it for myself twice a year. When I finish a novel [or] I'll order some for New Year's. And I can eat the entire tin, whatever I get, by myself. I like it with crême fraiche on potato chips with the coldest possible Champagne. To me, that is the perfect pairing.

But my favorite [weekday pairing] is Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc with lobster rolls or fried chicken.

Are you a wine tourist as well?

Yes. It's funny, because I've never been to France, but obviously I've been to Napa and Sonoma. My favorite hotel in the entire world is Auberge du Soleil. I've stayed there twice. It's amazing and I can't rave about it enough. That is the perfect, perfect, perfect hotel. I absolutely love it. I've visited Round Pond, Schramsberg and Chandon. Thomas Keller's Bouchon is absolutely fabulous.

Also Stellenbosch in South Africa. And we went to the North Island of New Zealand. And in Australia, we spent a lot of time in Margaret River—we lived there for five winters—and that is really where we were among the vineyards. There's a Sauvignon Blanc I love called Cape Mentelle, and my ex-husband, God love him, every time he drove by the vineyard, he used to call it Cape Mentelle L., because I'm Elin. Anyway, it was a joke. It was funny.

And if I see Cape Mentelle on a menu, I will always order it, but there are so many [great wines] there. And we used to take the kids when they were little, and we would just go and have lunch. And these vineyards are absolutely gorgeous. They're all really child-friendly, they have playgrounds. They had live music. You'd sit, and some of them were more elegant, some of them were more casual, like picnic tables. But the wine and the food, some of the most magical eating and drinking experiences I've ever had were in Margaret River in Western Australia. Absolutely divine.

I would love to go to Champagne, obviously, and the Loire Valley, to Sancerre. I would love to do that.

Elin Hilderband signs books at a convention in New York City. Wine has played a supporting role in several novels. (John Lamparski/WireImage)

The Blue Bistro is a beautiful book, and it paints a vivid picture of life in the restaurant industry. Were there any particular restaurants or experiences that inspired it?

Thank you. It is my favorite of all my books. The way that I came to write The Blue Bistro was that I had written my first novel, The Beach Club, which was about a hotel on Nantucket. The book came out, and we went to a restaurant called Pearl, which is now super famous, but at that time it was their opening week. And we went to Pearl and the owner came out and she said, "We all read The Beach Club and we loved it." And she said, "I just want you to know, you can never write a novel about a restaurant. It would be too scandalous."

So as soon as she said that, I thought, I'm going to write a novel about a restaurant. [laughing] I interviewed everybody I knew in the restaurant industry. Nantucket is a service-based economy, so basically every single person in Nantucket aside from Elin Hilderbrand has worked in a restaurant.

So I interviewed my friends, but I also got up at 4 o'clock in the morning and interviewed the pastry chef at American Seasons. And I "worked"—we're going to put that "worked" in quotes—the door, hanging up coats at 21 Federal. So I did my research for that book, but I have never actually worked a day in a restaurant.

Do you have a wine cellar at home? Do you consider yourself a wine collector?

I would not consider myself a wine collector. This house came with a floor-to-ceiling Subzero wine fridge, and it's quite impressive when you look at it. [But] I have a teenager [and two twenty-something sons and] they all have lots of friends, so I have to be careful what I'm keeping in the fridge when I'm not home …[laughing].

Normally I have a variety of red wine in case anybody comes over. And then I will always have four to five bottles of Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc. I'll always have four to five bottles of Veuve Clicquot, which is my go-to Champagne. And then I'll keep special bottles that people give me, which they do all the time. And then I have a couple bottles of rosé.

There's a bottle of Cristal in my fridge right now that someone gave me for hitting No. 1 on the New York Times bestseller list, but I've got too much tuition to pay to be seeking out fancy wine. Hopefully down the road. We'll see …