Those were the words of William Cecil, George Vanderbilt's grandson, in the early 1970's. He envisioned an estate winery that honored the agricultural heritage of his grandfather's estate. Despite many obstacles, he planted French-American hybrid vines below the Biltmore House and an inaugural vintage was bottled in the Conservatory basement.
In 1983, the Biltmore Wine Company was incorporated and Bill Cecil, son of Willliam, oversaw the conversion of the estate's original dairy into the new winery. In 1985, the Biltmore Winery opened to the public and William Cecil called it, "the most historic event since my grandfather opened his estate to his family on Christmas Day ninety years earlier."
Prior to our 3:00 tour, we sampled some of the estate's wines in the historic winery building that was originally the Biltmore dairy barn.
Standing in front of me was the Walker Family from Clinton, TN. I met Rachel, Mike, and their two girls last fall while camping with the Sisters in TN. They visited with us first at our Friday trailer tour and then we were invited to their house on Saturday. Mike showed us all his rare aluminum trailers, the girls played hostess, and Rachel served us supper. If you'd like to go back and read a bit more about those visits, you can go HERE.
It was great to chat with them off and on during the tour and before we left, I snapped their photo. I'm sure I'll see them again when I'm back with the Sisters in Morristown, TN in March!