Review: Wines of the Biltmore Estate, 2025 Releases
If you’ve ever been to the Biltmore (the historic home of the Vanderbilts) in Asheville, North Carolina, you know about the insane winemaking — and wine-tasting — operation there. I don’t think I’ve ever been to a tasting room as large as the one at the Biltmore, and I lived in northern California for 25 years.
The operation is amazing. The wines… perhaps not so much. It takes a little digging to realize that only a few of the wines made here are produced using local (or near-local) fruit, with most of the grapes coming from California and other locations (they are just labeled as “American”). Recently we received three Biltmore-produced wines to review. Which we will engage in presently.
2022 Biltmore Estate Pinot Noir American – Dusty and a little crunchy, this is a vague expression of pinot, with a beefy underbelly dominating restrained notes of cherries and plums. Graphite and some anise give the finish a very earthy quality, but this warms up with significant time in glass, giving the wine a smoldering and lightly smoky character, plus more present notes of raspberry and cherry. The wine definitely takes its time getting there, meandering through gentle notes of chocolate and anise along the way. OK in the end, but ultimately a bit indistinct. B / $22
2021 Biltmore Estate Mourvedre American – Considerably more elevated than the pinot noir, this is a smoldering wine that is dense with blackberry notes, layered with cloves, anise, and dark chocolate. Cinnamon notes emerge slowly on the surprisingly bold body, the wine slowly opening up to showcase floral elements, followed by a lighter style of milk chocolate and a reprise, late in the game, of those up-front berries — here red raspberry and some cherry alongside. Rather tart on the fade-out, but perfectly apropos for what’s come before. My easy favorite of the collection. A- / $28
2021 Vanderbilt Estate Virginia Viognier – This is an actual east coast wine, grapes grown in Virginia, though, not North Carolina — and bottled under the Vanderbilt Estate label. Turns out that’s not necessarily a good thing. I don’t think I’ve tasted a more watery viognier in my life. This wine just sits there, flat and plain, a shadow of any viognier I’ve tasted before, barely hinting at florals, and with its fruit all but absent. I struggled to eke much out of this — a drop of lime, some hints of pie crust — but none of it evoked what viognier should be. D / $28
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