Every thing I've seen/read/heard says they bed and winter very close to a food source.
The area should provide thermal protection from the elements (rain/snow/wind/cold) but be close to food, since they will not travel in the winter to feed. In many cases, they are in full energy conservation mode and cannot intake enough calories to offset daily caloric burn required to just stay alive. They subsist on a starvation diet in hopes of surviving till spring. This is not really the case in lowland areas unless it is an unusually cold and rainy/snowy winter. Most seasons, the lowland deer seem to survive with body fat reserves still intact.
Upper elevations, the deer congregate around the largest conifer trees that provide the most falling moss during wind or weather events. Lower down, you've got to figure out what they're eating. Typically small woody browse like Huckelberries and vine maple buds as well as any remaining trailing and other varieties of blackberry, sword fern tips, salal, etc. You may often find that they're eating W. Hemlock seedlings tops, which is considered to be one of the browse forms that indicates they are starving. I'm not so sure about that 'cause I see that happening a lot. Elk hit them too.
