January, 2011

Biltmore Estate North Carolina Chardonnay 2008

Grape 99% Chardonnay, 1% Riesling   Facts Biltmore Estate took almost 7 years to build, but this isn’t so shocking when you consider the size of the 175,000 square foot home. To put that in perspective, that’s about the size of 88 average size homes! The Vanderbilt’s were worth over $200 million, which is obviously a lot of money today, but think about that amount back in the 1800’s! Biltmore wines are made by the…

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The Mother Vine in North Carolina – 400 years young!

If you saw my post last week on the 10 Facts About North Carolina Wine, you would have seen the #1 fact being the 400+ year old Scuppernong vine on Roanoke Island. Well I did a bit of digging, and I thought you might be interested to see what the vine actually looks like. The 400 year old vine actually had a lucky escape last year, when a utility contractor actually thought it was a…

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Biltmore Wine Giveaway!

I have 6 bottles of Biltmore wine that desperately need to be won! The wines are: Biltmore Sur Lies Chardonnay Biltmore Century White Wine Biltmore Century Red Wine Biltmore Estate North Carolina Chardonnay Biltmore Reserve Pinot Noir – Russian River Valley Biltmore Estate Blanc de Blancs Sparkling   Here’s what you have to do to win: In 2010 Biltmore celebrated their 25th Anniversary AND WE MISSED IT!!! So what I need you to do is…

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Top 10 Facts About North Carolina Wine!

  10. The first cultivated grape in the nation is the Scuppernong, which is the official fruit of the state of North Carolina.     9. The annual economic impact of the North Carolina wine and grape industry is $813 million with 5,700 workers employed.     8. Medoc Vineyard in the town of Brinkleyville in Halifax County was the first commercial winery established in North Carolina and led the country’s wine production in 1835.

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Coriander Dusted Roast Beef Stroganoff with Biltmore Century Red Wine

  I think the last time I had Beef Stroganoff was in England over 10 years ago! I worked a lot of banquet catering events, and “Beef Strog” was always the menu item of choice. I’m guessing mainly because it can be hot-held over a long period of time, with the one minor drawback being that the beef always ended up tasting like boiled leather. This Beef Stroganoff however tastes nothing like my English experience…

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Biltmore Estate Chardonnay Sur Lies 2008

Grape 87% Chardonnay, 5% Viognier, 3% Malvasia   Facts The wine is named “Sur Lies” (pronounced lees), after the dead yeast cells (lies) which settle to the bottom of fermentation tanks. If these cells are agitated (usually by the winemaker stirring the vat), the wine will take on some of the qualities of the yeasts, giving additional richness, complexity and a toasty quality. Only one third of the wine that goes into the final blend…

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Introducing Biltmore Estate Winery!

  The first vineyards at Biltmore were established in 1971, and to this day the Estate remains the most visited winery in the United States. Around 1 million annual visitors stop by the North Carolina based Biltmore Winery to sample their award-winning wines each year. The winery currently produces everything from an Estate Viognier, to a Limited Release Malbec, right through to a Champagne-style Blanc de Blanc, all hand-crafted by the winemaking team of Bernard…

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The Oldest Known Winery?

This will surely piss off the French!!! A research team from UCLA says it has found the world’s oldest winery, in Armenia! "It’s the oldest proven case of documented and dedicated wine production, stretching back the horizons of this important development by thousands of years," said Gregory Areshian, co-director of the excavation for University of California Los Angeles’s Cotsen Institute of Archaeology. Areshian states that the clay pots and vats recently discovered in a cave…

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