backlogged update 2

(May 22) Strangely, the only day with sub-par weather when we visited NC was the day we wanted to go see the Biltmore Estate. The estate is apparently the largest private home in the United States, with approximately 8000 acres of land and a mansion of 175,000 sq.ft. The original estate had 125,000 acres of land, and George Washington Vanderbilt intended it to be a completely self-sustaining community. But the construction of the estate used up much of the Vanderbilt fortune, so after the death of GWV, the land was sold off to the federal government by his widow. GWV had only one daughter who married into the Cecil family, who is currently in charge of the up keep of the estate. During/post the great depression, the economy of Ashville suffered, and the chamber of commerce convinced the Cecils to open the estate as a museum to increase tourism in the area.

The weather forecast had thunderstorms rolling in at around noon. So early in the morning we went to the estate. After getting in the main gate, there was a long and winding approach road (with a 25mph posted speed limit) that went next to bits of forest and then the azalea garden. It took us 5 minutes or so to get from the front gate to the Vanderbilt house. The house, designed by Richard Morris Hunt, is an imitation of European chateaus. Seeing that it hadn't started to rain yet, we first visited the gardens designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, who is probably best known for the design of Central Park in NYC. In the background of the next picture is the Italian garden (also called the Terrace garden), so called because of the Italian influences in the decoration of the garden by statuattes and urns. The garden itself, with the large reflecting pools, is apparently French styled. Apparently the Vanderbilts also entertain their guests via games of lawn tennis on the patches of green we see in the picture.

Next to the house are many differently themed gardens separated by walls of hedges. Beside the aforementioned Italian and Azalea gardens, there's also a spring garden with many lovely trees. Below the spring garden we find the flowers (which were unfortunately not yet in full bloom at the time of the visit). And below that still is the Rose garden. Next to the Rose garden is the hot house. After visiting there, we took the small hike through the azalea garden and down to the bass pond and waterfall, after which we trailed back up toward the house. Originally we were planning to have lunch, but then we decided to head toward the house first in search of a restroom, at which moment it started drizzling. So we took the opportunity to visit inside the house (where photography is not allowed). It is like something straight out of old movies, but bigger and more extravagant. It contained 250 rooms, 65 fireplaces, an indoor pool, and a bowling alley. We were able to visit/walk by and look at around 60 of the rooms. One that the struck me was that each of the bedrooms were differently themed, with artistic motifs usually. The names are often named after the artist of the paintings it contains, and sometimes after the maker of the antique furniture it houses. In reflection it made a lot of sense: it would sound a lot better to "have the maid lead you to the van der Weyden room" than to "have the maid take you to the 5th room in the section section on the right of the third floor." The house also has three kitchens: a pastry kitchen, a rotisserie one, and the main kitchen. It also had a primitive walk-in refridgerator, which, along with the indoor plumbing at its numerous bathrooms, is undoubtly luxurious for the times. Oh, and another shocking realization came when we realized the rooms given to the workers at the estate (the maids and kitchen staff and laundry staff) are larger than a lot of the college dorm rooms I have seen (especially when compared against the ones my sisters had during their frosh years).

In any case, after the house, we bought lunch at a food stand in the court yard right next to the house (the "cafe" there has rather expensive pricing, and the bakery poor selection. So hot-dog specials it were). After lunch, the rain let up a bit and we took the shuttle to the parking lot and drove on to the winery (originally we also planned to visit the farm house, but time didn't permit us to do so). In a cute twist, we found out that leaving the main parking lot for the house involves driving pass right in front of the house, and then through the rose garden and pass the greenhouse, then around and over. The estate was well maintained (our $38/head entry fee hard at work).

At the winery, we first took the self-guided tour through the facilities and learned about the wine-making process and the history of the Biltmore Winery. As we found out later on in a guided tour, the winery was started in the late 70s by the current owner, the grand son of George Washington Vanderbilt. He wanted to fulfill his grandfather's vision of a self-sustaining community, but realized the dairy wasn't making all that money. So he hired a handyman and planted some concord grapes and decided to make wine. Well, without an actual wine master, and using Vitis labrusca instead of Vitis vinifera, after the first crop was bottled and tasted, George Cecil sent the entire crate to his cousin, the Marquess of Salisbury, with a note attached saying "Do not open in any condition."

So they hired a retired French winemaster and redid the whole thing, and actually made respectable wine. In the 80s, after the dairy operation shut down, they moved the winery to the newly vacated buildings. That is where we visited.

The self-guided tour ends just shy of the wine shop, and they invite all visitors to a small wine-tasting of the local products. The legal ones tasted some estate wines (I even took detailed notes...), while the younguns have grape juice (which they out-source).

We bought a few bottles.

After that, we took the guided tour (which is a special behind-the-scenes event) which actually got us up-close-and-personal with the entire wine making operation. Apparently if one is a year-long pass-holder, one can call in advance to find out which day they'd be picking the grapes (some time between mid-August to mid-October) and goes to enjoy the experience (personally I think it means they get paid-for labor: paid for by the workers for the pleasure of working for them). In any case, I feel a lot more educated now I am completely familiar with the wine-making process.

The tour also included barrel-tasting of some of the Frech-oak aged Cabernet Sauvignon, compared against the American-oak aged varieties. There was a distinct difference: if I put it in words, I'd say the French-oak ones (to the proper age) are more mellow and cultured, and the American-oak ones are more brash and wild.

After that, we went and participated in a "Wine and Chocolate" seminar that was run by someone actually younger than I am (hum, if he just turned 21 in April, how did he know so much about wine???). When someone posed a similar question to him, he said:

I am a political science major specializing in international relations. I only drink wine to pay the bills.

Something that I learned: chocolate also has tannins in it (I was only aware of its presence in Tea and Wine and, strangely enough, Pomegranates). That is the reason it is great to eat with wine. Since tannins are bitter-tasting and rather strongly flavorful, they work to hide the more subtle flavors of the wine. And by having some nice dark chocolate right before imbibing the red wine, one can overload the tannin-taste-buds so other flavors can be discerned. Or that's how the theory goes anyway. The effect is a lot more subtle than I just described.