Coriander Dusted Roast Beef Stroganoff with Biltmore Century Red Wine
January 14, 2011
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 with the dish.
Biltmore Estate Chardonnay Sur Lies 2008
January 13, 2011
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 is aged in oak barrels, the rest sits in stainless steel tanks. The two wines are then blended together in order to let the fruit show through, with only a little oak character.
Posted in Reviews | Tagged Biltmore | Leave a comment //Introducing Biltmore Estate Winery!
January 13, 2011
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 Delille and Sharon Fenchak.
For the next 7 days I will be featuring exclusively wines from the Biltmore!
Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Biltmore | Leave a comment //The Oldest Known Winery?
January 13, 2011
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 in southern Armenia close to Iran, show clear winemaking and distillation signs during the Copper Age, about 6,000 years ago. Before this find the oldest known winery was in Israel dating back to 1650 BC.
Posted in News | Leave a comment //A Master of Wine Student’s Guide to Remembering Grape Varieties
January 12, 2011Kosher Wine – Is There More Than Just Manischewitz?
January 11, 2011
I was asked a few days ago if I could recommend any half-decent Kosher wine. It’s not too often that I get caught off guard with wine questions, but this one did throw me through a loop! I was going to recommend Manischewitz and see the look on the person’s face, instead I decided a little research was in order!
Kosher, in Hebrew, means "fit", "proper" or "correct", and is generally used to describe food prepared adhering to strict Jewish dietary laws. Almost all Jewish holidays, involve blessings with kosher wine.
Wine is said to have a long history in the Jewish religion, going back to biblical times, however it’s reputation hasn’t always been that great (going back to my Manischewitz comment). Jewish immigrants to New York initially used Concord grapes to make their wine, however the results were a little "unorthodox" (sorry – bad Jewish joke)! The problem with Concord grapes are that they are super high in acid, and need sugar to balance them out. The image of all Kosher wines being sweet stuck.
Posted in Facts, News | 3 Comments //← Older posts Newer posts →
