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| The pathway right outside of the entrance that leads you to the tunnel towards the winery |
The winery is only a few miles away from the Biltmore House itself, located in Antler Village near a few restaurants, shops, and the Biltmore Inn. After walking through this entrance here, you walk along this beautiful path that leads you into a tunnel with a bunch of historical information on the winery itself as well as the whole estate.
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| The tunnel with informational signs talking about the history of the estate and the winery |
After walking through the dark tunnel which is shown above, you step foot into the main area serving all things that have to do with wine: the shop (filled with a large + diverse amount of wine, glasses and decanters, souvenirs, snacks, etc.) and the tasting room!
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| A small part of the wine shop filled with wine and glassware |
The first part of the tour was definitely more historical and informational regarding the site and the winery. The winery was originally a dairy farm from 1902-1985 before transitioning. William Cecil converted the "dairy barn" into a winery to continue his grandfather's original intent in having the whole 8,000 acre Biltmore Estate be self-supporting (his grandfather being George Vanderbilt, the original owner of the Biltmore Estate). The winery opened to the public in 1985.
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| The tasting room in a section just off of the main shop |
A fun fact that we learned about the winery is that at this tower, workers have to use a remote control to make a set of stairs drop down from the balcony shown below (where the door is located). An individual would then have to go up the set of stairs and crank a 400 pound weight to make the clock work for just one more week. This is done every Friday to have the clock working 24/7.
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| The tower in the winery showing the door/balcony they use to get ahold of the clock |
The next area we made our way into held the large tanks. In one room the tanks are specifically dedicated to red wine, the other room being dedicated to white wine. During harvest time, something they liked to call "crush," they mentioned the idea that the white grapes require a much shorter amount of growing time in comparison to the red grapes. From other vineyards, the grapes go to the crush stock and are pressed. The tour guide mentioned that the red grapes produced in the winery are left in the large tanks for a significantly larger amount of time to give the bold colors and tannins in the wine.
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| The horizontal tanks |
These large, horizontal tanks rotate to essentially "stir the pot" with the skins and seeds for the complexity of the wine with color and tannins. When the fermentation process is done, these tanks are then rotated in the opposite direction and all the extra stuff/byproducts that need to be separated from the wine are put onto a conveyor belt and shot out. This process is clearly different from the vertical tanks as they do not rotate as a whole unit like the horizontal tanks. Instead, there are plungers to plunge the skin down, a very different way to stir the wine.
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| The vertical tanks shown behind our tour guide |
Next, we made our way into one of the three existing former milking parlours which now takes care of bottling (shown below). Every single day there are about 20,000 bottles that are completed. Each bottle gets cleaned and shot into a contained room where nitrogen is placed in the bottle to force the oxygen out of the contained space.
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| Former milking parlour turned into the bottling area |
Next we made our way into my favorite room of the whole tour, the barrel room. This building behind the winery is filled with wine, most barrels here being prepped to go in a barrel. Another fun fact we learned was that a "Cooper" is an individual/craftsman that makes a barrel in the colonial times, therefore a "Cooperage" is a company that makes barrels. We were told that most red wines are in the oak barrels. Through trial and error, white oak was shown to have the audacity to give off pleasant flavors. American oak is also very different in French oak as American gives off more mocha and caramel notes whereas the French oak gives off floral notes with some spice. The white oak barrels they typically receive come from Kentucky and Tennessee. French oak barrels are about 2-3 times more expensive than American Oak barrels in the winery.
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| The barrel room |
As we've learned in this class, a winemaker certainly has the ability to add flavors or mix barrels and reblend the wine for certain notes, especially in a new wine they are experimenting with. Some winemakers decide to create a wine where 2/3 of it is aged in French oak and 1/3 of the wine is aged in American oak and later reblended to create new, exciting flavors. Our tour guide talked about how these barrels breathe, not a lot but definitely enough. A little bit of oxugen goes right through the wood and is introduced into the wine (in a controlled way) through a process called microoxygenation. This process can influence wine, soften the tannins and give some complexity.
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| One of the American Oak barrels showing the labeling and capacity in greater detail |
These barrels hold a mere 59 gallons. But due to some evaporation over time, the 59 gallons that go in the barrel lessen over time to where less than 59 gallons end up coming out of the barrel. They coined this term as "angels share." After the first batch of wine is aged in a barrel, 60% of the good qualities in the barrel go in and out with the wine, so the second or third batch of wine will have to stay in the barrel for much longer. Typically a barrel will no longer be used for aging after 3 uses.
The Biltmore's red wines are usually aged in the oak barrels for about 10-24 months whereas their white wines (more specifically talking about Chardonnay) is aged in oak barrels for about 6-10 months.
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| Ethan and I walking to the sparkling wine room! |
From the barrel room, we made our way into the process of sparkling wine. The Biltmore winery uses the French method for their champagne (they do not label it as champagne as it isn't from the region outside of Paris). The chardonnay is placed in the pressurized tank for more sugar and yeast, and the fermentation makes it into a sparkling wine. The bubbles actually start in the bottle for 3 weeks and contained with a temporary cap; the amount of pressure created is the same as a semi-trailer truck.
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| Champagel machine where bottles are placed uspide down for riddling/taking out the yeast |
These sparkling wines then sit for another two years to get flavorful, and once they are ready, you take the bottle, shake them to get all the yeast out in a process called riddling. The Biltmore riddles 500 bottles at one time, making the bottles clear all the way down. They are then chilled overnight and placed in the Champagel device (shown above) upside down in -22 degree liquid (a man-made fluid) for one minute and a half to grab all of the yeast. Because the bottle is no longer filled up all the way, a round of dosage is added into the bottle to add maybe some more residual sugars if the winemaker decides they want it to be sweeter on the palate or a kind of cognac for wine feel before the bottle is corked. The corks are extremely large and are microwaved to shrink the cork to be placed in the bottle properly using the corking machine (shown below). A cage is then placed on top to force the cork down, an individual does 6 turns on the cork to get it tight and ready for placement on shelves!
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| Corking machine for sparkling wines |
After learning about how the winery makes/ages their white wines, red wines, and sparkling wines, we made our way into a private tasting room that came complimentary with this "behind the scenes" winery tour.
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| The private wine tasting room |
Below are photos of the labels of wine we tasted (followed by a quick summary and conclusion of the tour), including basic information and details on the specific wines as well as winemaker notes and personal notes of each. We tasted 5 wines in this room starting with a sparkling wine, moving onto a dry white wine, tasting 2 red wines and ending with a semi-sweet Muscat Canelli. These wines were amazing and I was surprised with how much I enjoyed each glass.
Wine Tasting Notes:
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Name: Biltmore Estate Blanc De Noire Brut Sparkling Wine
Variety: Pinot Noir
Region: North Carolina
Country: USA
Year: N/A
Price: $25.00
Winemaker Notes: Careful aging produces a crisp sparkling wine with a delightful light pink hue and flavors of cherries and strawberries. |
Personal notes: I thought this wine had strong notes of strawberries, raspberries and cherries. It was more on the dry side with a crisp, yet refreshing finish that lasted for about 3 seconds. It also had a beautiful rose-like coloring from the pinot noir grape.
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Name: Biltmore Reserve Chardonnay
Variety: Chardonnay
Region: North Carolina
Country: USA
Year: 2017
Price: $24.00
Winemaker Notes: Crafted from North Carolina's finest locally grown Chardonnay grapes, this wine is full-bodied with good acidity highlighted by citrus and tropical fruit flavors. |
Personal notes: I thought this wine was absolutely fantastic. You could tell this wine was aged in oak barrels with oaky, creamy, and vanilla hints. It was acidic yet fruity, but also extremely light and not too dry of a finish. One of the best chardonnays I've tasted thus far.
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Name: Vanderbilt Reserve Pinot Noir Russian River Valley
Variety: Pinot Noir
Region: California
Country: USA
Year: 2015
Price: $30.00
Winemaker Notes: This Pinot Noir thrived in the cool climate of California's Russian River Valley, resulting in a complex expressive wine with an elegant, almost delicate mouth-feel. Strawberry, raspberry, vanilla, and well-integrated oak aromas give way to supple fruit flavors. |
Personal notes: The Pinot Noir had strong notes of dark berries, cherries, and tobacco. This was one of the wines where the Biltmore partners with a winery in California and use their facilities to also bottle this particular wine. It definitely has some tannins, but the dry/puckery feeling went away fast. It was surprisingly not too heavy.
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Name: Biltmore Estate Cabernet Sauvignon
Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon
Region: North Carolina
Country: USA
Year: 2017
Price: $19.00
Winemaker Notes: Remarkably smooth with rich vanilla aromas, lush cherry flavors, and soft lingering tannins. |
Personal notes: This Cabernet Sauvignon had a medium body with hints of oak and vanilla on top of raspberry and plum. The aftertaste lasted only for a couple of seconds, so the "tannic feeling" went away fast and wasn't too overpowering.
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