Biltmore Estate

After a morning of work, we headed out to the Biltmore Estate, the palatial home of George Vanderbilt and a primary attraction of the area.  Despite our initial skepticism, we have to say that it was worth the visit.

    The self-guided house tour goes through many of the magnificent rooms in the main part of the house, as well as servant quarters, kitchens, storage areas and the laundry in the basement.

As “Downton Abbey” fans, we also signed up for the guided “Upstairs/Downstairs” tour which explained the workings of the household and took us through more areas.  The house has amazing views of the surrounding area and mountains.The house tour took about 4 hours in all, leaving us some time to go to the gift shop for free samples of some of the Biltmore sauces and dips.  There was also a free wine-tasting at the gift shop, but we opted to wait for the tasting at the Winery later in the evening.

All of this left us with a couple of daylight hours to go through the Conservatory (filled with orchids, bromelids and amarylis) and hike around the Bass Pond.  Had it been summer, the extensive flower gardens would also have been appealing.

With more energy and daylight, we might have taken a long walk or bike ride along the river, or on some of the other trails.

As evening approached, we headed to the on-site winery for the wine tasting included in our admission.  The tasting menu had about 20 varieties.  Although they recommend that you try at most 6, you can try all the offerings if you are so inclined.  Naomi asked for a 1/2 taste so that she could try a some extra varieties while staying (fairly) sober.  Much of the wine was excellent and we discovered that we both liked the same ones.  We very much enjoyed chatting with our two sommeliers – both about our age who had recently moved to Asheville and were enjoying combining part-time work as sommeliers with other interests.

We decided to stay on-site for dinner as well.  We both had a very good and reasonably priced shepherd’s pie.  To our astonishment, the restaurant gave us a free dessert, which can only be described as a scrumptious concoction of whipped cream, chocolate sauce, caramel  and brownies.

We can certainly see that an annual membership that provides access to the trails and gardens, and possibly the wine-tasting and house could be very appealing to Asheville residents.  And despite the pricey admission (remember – $10 less at the Visitor Center) it was well worth the visit.