Biltmore Furniture Collection Open Houses Posted on September 3, 2013 at 12:00 am.Written by Karina Hux Join us at our new furniture collection open houses at a store near you! Louis Shanks 2800 Fondren Rd. Houston, Texas 77063 (713) 780-9770 Dates & Times: September 21 at 3 pm; September 22 at 2 pm Furnitureland South 5635 Riverdale Dr Jamestown, NC 27282 (336) 822-3000 Date & Time: September 28; 11 am – 1 pm Tyson Furniture 109 Broadway Black Mountain, NC 28711 (828) 669- 5000 Date and Time: November 2; 2 pm – 4 pm Birmingham Wholesale 2200 2nd Avenue South Birmingham, AL 35233 1-800-947-7192 Date & Time: November 7; 6 pm – 8 pm Good's Home Furnishings 11735 Carolina Place Parkway Pineville, NC 28134 (704) 910-6096 Date & Time: November 14; 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm Sedlak Interiors 34300 Solon Road Cleveland, OH 44139 (440) 248-2424 Date: November 1 – 9 Click here for more information and additional photos of our beautiful furniture, inspired by styles and designs in Biltmore House and across the estate!
Frame Your Travels Posted on August 31, 2013 at 12:00 am.Written by Jean Sexton Looking for a fabulous way to showcase your travels? The framing professionals at Larson-Juhl suggest creating a custom-frame shadowbox to display collections of photos and treasured keepsakes that bring the journey to life all over again. Shadowboxes are perfect for this purpose because they add depth to your collections, allowing you to add dimensional objects rather than just flat photos, maps, or postcards. A knowledgeable framer can help you choose the right height to make the most of the items you want to highlight. Professional framing and glass choices can also keep special items from further deterioration and damage. Here are a few ideas we love: Exotic Travel Adventure Photos from your excursionsForeign currencySpecial items purchased at a marketTicket stubs or copies of passport travel stamps Family Beach Vacation Use a map of the beach as the backgroundFamily photos taken on the beachSeashells, sand, or driftwoodPostcards Big City Getaway Use the subway system map as the backgroundTickets from shows, museums or any special placePhotos taken in the citySmall items purchased in the city Biltmore Vine To Wine Tour Use the map of the vineyard as the backgroundA bottle of wine from the vineyardPhotos of the vineyardTasting notes you jotted down along the way
Ted’s Favorite Places Posted on August 12, 2013 at 12:00 am.Written by Karina Hux Ted Katsigianis has experienced a lot during his three decades at Biltmore. As Vice President of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, he directs a staff that works in traditional agriculture such as forage and field crops, and livestock including cattle, sheep, goats, and poultry. He also works with the Equestrian Center programs. As if that’s not a fulltime job, he’s also in charge of environmental initiatives and sustainability! The Farmyard in Antler Hill Village is one of his favorite locations at Biltmore because of his personal connection to the area. “I was heavily involved with the restoration of the Antler Hill Village Barn project and creation of the Farmyard. It’s a pleasure to see guests young and old enjoy interacting with our animals. The children are especially thrilled,” he says. “I enjoy admiring the sheep and cattle in the production pastures, and watching the poultry and baby goats in the Farmyard.” His other favorite view is found on the estate’s West Side, located across the French Broad River from Biltmore House. The rolling pastures give way to Long Valley Vineyard—one of Biltmore’s earliest vineyards—with Long Valley Lake in the distance. Ted was a member of the team that helped create Long Valley Vineyard, and he’s proud to be a part of estate history in that regard. “We were breaking new ground for a specialty crop grown in Western North Carolina, and we didn’t have anything to go by,” he explains. “I was in charge of the vineyard for 17 years, and some of our best harvests occurred during this time.” If you would like to experience the views from the vineyards, we recommend the new Vine to Wine Tour offered on Saturdays and Sundays now through fall. This exclusive guided tour incorporates tastings of our best Biltmore wines while taking you to the vineyards and behind-the-scenes Winery production and bottling locales, finishing with a premium grand tasting and gourmet nibbles. You must have a Biltmore admission ticket or Annual Pass to participate. Call us at 800-543-2961 to make reservations.
Behind the Scenes: Big Reveal Set For Fall Posted on August 9, 2013 at 12:00 am.Written by Karina Hux Two rooms inside the 250-room Biltmore House – the Second Floor Living Hall and the Salon – will re-open this fall after the estate’s Museum Services team restores them to their appearances as they were when George Vanderbilt opened the home in 1895. In recent years, the Second Floor Living Hall has been used as an exhibition space; prior to that, it was interpreted as a sitting area. An early 1950s photo offered a glimpse of the original furnishings of this space—gilded sconces, paintings and a suite of oversized Baroque furniture placed around the perimeter of the room. Additional research led curators to determine that the room’s primary function was intended as a picture gallery and formal hallway. “We’re constantly striving to interpret the house authentically as it appeared during the Vanderbilts’ time,” said Darren Poupore, Chief Curator. Bringing the room back to its original state includes conserving all the furnishings, recreating elaborate window treatments and making structural changes. “We discovered that the original upholstery was a gauffraged fabric—a rich wool velvet with a pattern pressed into it—in a striking gold color,” said Poupore. “We had it reproduced in France by Prelle, the same company that made many of our historic fabrics for the Louis XV Suite project.” Green velvet draperies will adorn windows featuring exact reproductions of four pelmets (or valances). For two years, local textile artist Heather Allen Swarttouw painstakingly embroidered and appliquéd each pelmet to match the originals. As appropriate for such a prominent space, several notable paintings are being returned to their original locations. John Singer Sargent’s portraits of Richard Morris Hunt and Frederick Law Olmsted and Anders Zorn’s painting “The Waltz,” which have been hanging temporarily in the Salon, will once again hang where George Vanderbilt intended. The restored room will be completed and re-opened September 1st, 2013. Relocating the paintings from the Salon has led to its reinterpretation, centered on the fact that the Salon was one of the few first floor rooms not completed during Vanderbilt’s lifetime. “Draperies were placed in the archways to prevent the Vanderbilts’ guests from seeing inside the room,” Poupore said. “It had bare brick walls, a rough subfloor and a structural tiled ceiling without its finished treatment. In the 1920s, Edith Vanderbilt turned it into a Turkish sitting room, but in 1930 everything except the 1920s ceiling treatment was removed and it became a space to display special objects.” Curators decided to tell the story of how the room has changed through the years. Removal of a wall revealed an original firebox and brick walls. A section of the fabric ceiling treatment is being removed to show the terra cotta tiled ceiling above. Information panels will explain the new interpretation of the room when it re-opens October 1st, 2013. Learn more about the Biltmore house.
Finding Summer Beauty in the Italian Garden Posted on August 5, 2013 at 12:00 am.Written by Karina Hux If you’re visiting Biltmore soon, make a beeline for the Italian Garden. Located adjacent to Biltmore House, this formal garden is in its prime late summer. Filled with numerous varieties of exotic water lilies, tropical bananas, papyrus, and koi fish, the Italian Garden is a sight to behold. Magical Lilies Biltmore gardeners Chuck Cissell and Steven Ayers have been hard at work all year ensuring all the elements are in place for spectacular summer blooms. The Italian Garden gets better every year. This year, it is over the top again and this is probably the best year yet for seeing our water lilies. All three pools feature different water lilies including hardy and tropical varieties. We’re especially fond of our tropical water lilies that open up in the evening and bloom until mid-morning. If you’re an early morning guest or an overnight guest, sneak down to the Italian Garden to enjoy this unique display. Many guests don’t realize that lily blooms only last for three days. Many refer to the bloom process as being “sort of magical.” The blooms from the tropical lilies sit above the water and feature bright white, pink, red and even blue blossoms. It’s a marvelous sight to see and just another amazing example of nature’s beauty. If you miss the tropical night blooms, don’t worry. We have planted different varieties, so guests visiting during the day can still enjoy flowers from day blooming tropical and hardy lilies as well. Look for the blooms through the first cold snap, which can be as early as September or as late as October. The Italian Garden closely resembles the original blueprint by Olmsted, with the only main difference being the center bed display. Blooming Blueprint While the lilies are the one the highlights of the Italian Garden, the pools include an array of other plants. Lotus, Victoria water platters, canna lilies, papyrus, water snowflakes, and purple leaf rice are all in bloom right now. Perhaps one of the most rewarding aspects of visiting the Italian Garden is the fact that the design intent has remained unchanged since Vanderbilt’s time. Two of the pools have been refurbished, and the Hemlock hedges have recently been replaced with American Holly hedges to stay true to Olmsted’s vision for the garden. The plants used pay homage to gardening notes and plant orders found in estate archives. We don’t do anything different in the Italian Garden than what they did back in George Vanderbilt’s day. Bring Home the Beauty of the Italian Garden Water Gardening is easier than you think. Below are some quick tips for creating a backyard water garden: Select a sturdy, large ceramic container that can hold water. Find a location that receives at least eight hours of sunlight, and use pavers or bricks to form a level base for the container. Start with a fool-proof water plant such as tropical water lilies. Plant the water lily in a small plastic container filled with topsoil and plunge the pot into the larger container filled with water. Cover the soil with pebbles or sand to prevent muddy water. The top of the lily’s pot should be eight inches below the surface of the water. If necessary, add bricks or blocks to form a base within the water container. Finish off the water garden by adding water lettuce or other floating plants. Maintain your water garden by cutting spent blooms on the lily and pushing a fertilizer tablet into the lily’s soil every few weeks. Learn more about our gardens and grounds.
The Royal Bundle Revives a Biltmore Memory Posted on July 26, 2013 at 12:00 am.Written by Karina Hux This week’s arrival of William and Kate’s baby – His Royal Highness Prince George of Cambridge – has us thinking back to the summer of 1996 when the child’s grandfather, Prince Charles, visited Biltmore. The occasion? To launch the first American Summer School of the Prince of Wales’ Institute of Architecture. Biltmore House hosted the school’s students for a week that summer. They studied drawing while immersing themselves in the works of the estate’s designers Richard Morris Hunt and Frederic Law Olmsted. The idea for hosting the school came after William A.V. Cecil Sr., George Vanderbilt’s grandson, attended a dinner party at the Prince’s Gloucestershire estate in 1995. The Asheville Citizen-Times reported Mr. Cecil said the Prince was interested in supporting good architecture in the aftermath of World War II. The war devastated many historic structures in London, and the city’s reconstruction wasn’t to everyone’s liking. That sentiment, he said, inspired Prince Charles to start the school. While the Prince was at Biltmore, William and Mimi Cecil hosted a reception for him and his staff on the Loggia of Biltmore House. As the photo shows, the Prince’s visit caught the attention of lots of news photographers and of course, Biltmore guests! Planning for such a visit during Biltmore’s high season was no small task, having started many months ahead of the June visit. Countless phone calls between Biltmore and Buckingham Palace took place, says Debbie Robinson, who works in Biltmore’s Marketing Department. Bill Alexander, Biltmore’s Landscape and Forest Historian, was part of the welcome party that day, and with Bill Cecil, Jr., toured the Prince and his party through the gardens and Conservatory. So impressed with the gardens and Bill Alexander’s knowledge about the history of Biltmore and gardening in general, the Prince offered a special invitation. “He said that I was welcome to visit Highgrove, his country estate in Gloucestershire,” says Bill, noting he’d shared his upcoming plan to lead a tour group through the English countryside with stops at notable gardens along the way. Bill made an immediate change to the group’s itinerary and later that fall, he and his tour group were welcomed by the Prince’s staff at his home. Unfortunately, an emergency took the Prince away from home that day, but his staff received Bill and the group like honored guests, treating them to an elaborate tea held in the Prince’s dining room after a grand tour by the head gardener. It’s a lovely footnote in Biltmore’s recent history. We hope that Prince Charles is enjoying his new grandson. And our most heart-felt congratulations to William and Kate! About the Photos Main photo: William A.V. Cecil Sr. greets Prince Charles at the front door of Biltmore House, Summer 1996. Photo courtesy of the Asheville Citizen-Times, by Debbie Chase-Jennings.
A Match Made In Design Heaven Posted on July 26, 2013 at 12:00 am.Written by Karina Hux Biltmore Panel Bed This handsome bed, inspired by the strong lines of a wrapped footboard from one of the guest beds in Biltmore House, is an heirloom-quality piece that sets a new standard for comfort and elegance. Notice how the design of this bed creates an immediate sense of intimacy, as though sleepers are set apart in their own world. Sweet Charity Pair the slightly masculine lines of the Biltmore Panel Bed with Charity, our lovely new bedding collection by Belk. Woven in a deep teal and gold filigree color scheme, Charity is a luxurious addition to any bedroom. Design Tip A print in an attractive frame adds another layer of richness and depth to a room. To easily mix with many different colors and designs, consider a black-and-white print like “The Dance of the Nymphs,” shown here in a Biltmore-inspired frame from the Tapestry Collection by Larson-Juhl. The print itself is taken directly from one of George Vanderbilt’s treasured art books. Learn more about these products and many other matches made in design heaven.
Greg’s Favorite Places Posted on July 14, 2013 at 12:00 am.Written by Karina Hux As head instructor for the Land Rover Experience Driving School at Biltmore, Greg Nikolas has what many people consider an ideal job. Greg drives luxurious and highly capable Land Rovers to rarely seen places on the estate while instructing guests on how to improve their off-road driving skills. The experiences range from 1 or 2-hour lessons on obstacle courses with steep descents, side-tilts, and rock crawls to full-day training in off-road techniques and recovery. He doesn’t deny that it’s fun—he’s worked for Land Rover for 15 years, including the past 9 years at Biltmore’s program. And while he enjoys the time he spends navigating and instructing guests as they pilot Land Rovers through woods and fields, there are two locations on the estate he considers his favorites. The first spot is the statue of Diana, located at the top of the Vista that faces Biltmore House. “The view of Biltmore House from Diana is spectacular. Every time I’m there I think about how George Vanderbilt must have felt seeing his home from this vantage point. This particular view really puts the house’s size and splendor into perspective,” Greg says. His other favorite is less well-known but just as scenic. Picnic Hill is located on the estate’s west side, across the French Broad River from Biltmore House and Antler Hill Village. There is limited access to this spot; it’s primarily visited by guests participating in a Land Rover activity. Picnic Hill overlooks Long Valley Lake, the vineyards, and provides a unique glimpse of the Inn on Biltmore Estate. “It is so peaceful and serene there that you could be miles from anywhere. In reality, you’re only minutes from Asheville and the rest of the estate,” Greg says. “As its name suggests, we use it for picnics on our full-day adventures. And it’s been the scene for more than one marriage proposal!”
Grilled Summer Vegetable & Goat Cheese Pizzetas Posted on July 14, 2013 at 12:00 am.Written by Karina Hux Nothing says summer like the fresh, grilled vegetables of the season. Drizzle with a delicious vinaigrette and bake atop a homemade pizza crust and you’ve got an amazing appetizer or light lunch. For the perfect finish, serve with a glass of crisp and refreshing Biltmore Sauvignon Blanc. Serves 4-5 Pizzeta Dough Ingredients 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour 1 tablespoon sugar 2–3 garlic cloves, minced 1 teaspoon dried basil 1 teaspoon dried rosemary 1 teaspoon dried tarragon 2 tablespoons olive oil 1/4 cup vegetable oil 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon quick-rising dry yeast 1 cup warm water Pizzeta Topping Ingredients 2 heirloom tomatoes 1 red onion 1 small zucchini 1 small yellow squash 2 portabella mushrooms Salt and pepper to taste Herb vinaigrette salad dressing 1/2 cup crumbled goat cheese 12 basil leaves, thinly sliced Preparation Instructions Dough: Combine flour, sugar, garlic, basil, rosemary, tarragon, olive, oil, vegetable oil, and salt in a mixing bowl; mix with a dough hook. Add the yeast and mix at low speed. Add ½ cup of the water gradually, mixing constantly. Add the remaining water gradually, mixing constantly until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl. Mix at low-to-medium speed for 3–4 more minutes. Remove to an oiled bowl, turning to coat the surface. Let dough rise, covered with a clean towel, until doubled in bulk. Punch down the dough and let rise again until doubled in bulk. Punch down to remove air bubbles and divide into 4–5 equal portions. Preheat a grill for 10–15 minutes until hot. Place each portion of Pizzeta Dough on an inverted cake pan or baking pan and press gently into a circle. Invert the pans on the grill so that the dough circles rest on the grill. Grill for 1–2 minutes or until the dough is set. Remove the pans and turn the crusts over. Grill until the other side is marked. Remove from the grill. Pizzetas: Cut the tomatoes, onion, zucchini, yellow squash, and mushrooms into chunks. Combine with the salt, pepper and dressing in a bowl. Toss to coat evenly. Drizzle vegetables with salad dressing and toss to coat evenly. Grill the vegetables until tender-crisp. Chop into bite-sized pieces and sprinkle over the pizzetta crusts. Sprinkle the goat cheese over the vegetables. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Bake pizzetas until the cheese melts and the crusts are crisp. Sprinkle with chopped basil. Cut into wedges to serve. Tip Pizzetas are simply small/individual-style grilled pizzas. Try any combination of toppings and sauces that you enjoy!
Grilled Shrimp with Spicy Jalapeño Chimichurri Posted on July 13, 2013 at 12:00 am.Written by Karina Hux Chef Damien Cavicchi is heating things up this summer with his recipe for Grilled Shrimp with Spicy Jalapeño Chimichurri. For a delicious pairing, serve this dish with Biltmore Century White. The wine is refreshing, with hints of tropical and citrus fruit, plus a nice balance of sweetness to tame a bit of the spicy heat in this sizzling summer favorite! Serves 4 Ingredients 2 medium jalapeño peppers 2 cups cilantro, large stems removed, finely chopped 2 cups Italian flat leaf parsley, large stems removed, finely chopped 1 cup green onions, finely sliced 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 tablespoon ground cumin Zest and juice of 2 large limes ¾ cup extra virgin olive oil Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste 24 large shrimp (about 1½ pounds), peeled and deveined Preparation Instructions Preheat grill, grill pan, or iron skillet to medium-high heat. Grill jalapeños until black on sides, about 5 minutes. Place peppers in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap to loosen outer skin. Remove black outer skin, stem, and seeds. Finely chop peppers. In the bowl of a food processor, combine cilantro, parsley, onions, peppers, garlic, cumin, and lime zest and juice. With motor running, add ½ cup oil in a steady stream. Stop processor to scrape down sides of bowl, and pulse a few more times to achieve a medium-coarse texture. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Toss shrimp with remaining oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill about 2 minutes per side on the hottest part of the grill, until pink and opaque. Serve immediately with chimichurri sauce. See more Biltmore recipes.