Was "blessed" with a bottle ofthis today. Our houseguests are just returning from North Carolina and thought they had NC wine, but as I checked the label just now I realize that this is from Oakville CA.
What can I expect from this wine? Body, wood, fruit? Ok for supermarket wine, better than average, really good? What food? Any help.
Thank you
I visited them about 10 years ago with a client an Importer/Exporter and a German winery owner, the tour of the Biltmore Mansion set up by an Ashville wholesaler. The tour & lunch was good and a young lady was assigned the task of pouring wine us for at a very busy time. After we finished the previously opened wine, mostly from hybrid. When the winemaker from Germany asked some technical question, she just read from the pr sheet which had no technical data, the question was repeated by she said she was just filling in for a friend. There was wine that was off, we asked for a taste from a new bottle, The young lady said she couldn't do that, it was in her instruction of giving us a private tasting. Heinz asked if we could try the cabernet reserve. The young lady directed us to the main tasting area, where we had a zing with California grapes and the cab reserve from the central coast. Again the wine was flawed. It had been opened for 5 days. They said no to a request a fresh bottle be opened, I explained that the folks with me were looking for American wine to export and that I was a broker representing a number of Maryland & Virginia wine. The man running the tasting room came over and I handed him our business card--he thought for a moment and said we'd have to make an appointment with Biltmore's sales director to retaste the wines. The zin was unimpressive and I couldn't get much out of the cab.
Our next stop was Orlando where we would be pouring at a trade show. I did call our wholesaler and told him that it was obvious that the tasting room staff thought we were tourists, but we appreciated his efforts. We were told that the sales manager said there was a mix up in communication and if we were returning to Ashville we'd be most welcome.
Over the years I've had a number of Biltmore wine with California grapes. Not very good. I'd say except for marketing. Biltmore Estate Wines is not ready for prime time. "jcoulter" wrote in message news:Xns96DB8A29C126yourvacation@216.196.97.136...
"Joseph B. Rosenberg" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:
In other words, I have been "blessed"
It won't kill you--that would be my expectation.
Biltmore is like many Eastern Wineries---they rely on tourists for the bulk of their income. I'm sure Biltmore has a UC Davis trained winemaker who'd like to play with better grapes so they indulge him and let him make a few out sourced wines..Sometime poor vintages and climatic conditions force a winery to go out of state, especially if its for their most popular wines. A number of Maryland wineries have done well with New York State grapes.
Biltmore is no mom & pop winery. Its run by people who know how to market. In my state their techniques resemble Linganore & Boordy with a full schedule of events to lure the patrons in. Boordy has a talented winemaker. Whets unique about Biltmore is its deep pockets, besides the mansion as an attraction they try hard to expand beyond their state. Much in the way Horton in Virginia does and the Barbersville-Zonin enterprise does but they both make decent wine and are constantly bugging their wholesalers to aggressively push sales.
I'm my case I was much to small potatoes to pay me & my clients any attention. I helped establish Barboursville, Oasis and Horton in Maryland to the point where they thanked me and moved the wines to bigger wholesalers and hired out of state reps. It was a natural evolution.
I honestly doubt that if the wines were better, I would have sought to take Biltmore on. First of all Germans wanted to have me focus on their wines in the US and I knew there was no way I could spend time introducing the wine properly as soon as I secured major placements, Biltmore would move on, still I didn't like being treated like trash.
I could be wrong and let sour grapes cloud my judgment but I doubt it.
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