Taking the world one wine at a time.
Sometimes it’s hard for me to get to restaurant’s working the schedule I do. Some of the best places in Jacksonville are closed on Sunday and Monday (my usual days off), and most places are closed by the time I finish work. Dinner at 13 Gypsies has therefore been a long time coming! First off, let me start by saying that the place is tiny, and by tiny I mean 7 tables. It therefore…
Read More
Wine: Biltmore Century Wine Blend Grapes: Gewurztraminer, Muscat, Riesling and Malvasia Region: Mendocino, Monterey and Washington State Price: $15.99 retail from Biltmore.com
Read MoreThis is the official guide of the Biltmore and is fully downloadable for free. Guide to the Biltmore House in North Carolina
Read More
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…
Read More
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…
Read More
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…
Read MoreWine: Biltmore Reserve Region: Russian River Valley, Sonoma, California Grape: 100% Pinot Noir Price: $25
Read More
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.
Read More
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…
Read More
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…
Read More
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…
Read More