Biltmore Wine Wins at Wine Tasting Challenge

As stated on the Biltmore website, the Biltmore Estate Winery located on the beautiful and historic Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC, recently took part in the World Value Wine Challenge. The event is sponsored and takes place at the Beverage Tasting Institute.

Receiving a gold medal was Biltmore Estate's Sauvignon Blanc with an overall rating of 91 points in the category of "Top twelve wines under $10.00." The Estate Sauvignon also received a special judge's award for "Best US Sauvignon Blanc." Primarily focused on the $20.00 and under range, the World Value Wine Challenge focuses on searching out and identifying wines which provide consumers with outstanding value.

Founded in 1981, the Beverage Tasting Institute has a mission of producing fair and impartial wine reviews for consumers. The Beverage Tasting Institute's buying guides have appeared in Wine Enthusiast, Restaurant Hospitality, The New Yorker Magazine, Wine & Spiritsand theInternational Wine Review. Officials at the Beverage Tasting Institute indicated that this year's categories "reflect new trends, pricing, and a fresh look at what value wines are." In other words, the public should not confuse value wines as being cheap wines. Value wines offer more flavor, quality, and value do than wines at a similar or higher price. One interesting trend is that wines in the $20.00 and under range represent over 90% of all wines sold in the United States.

Judging at the 2007 World Value Wine Challenge was broken into four price-based categories for 750mL bottles including $20.00 and under, $15.00 and under, $10.00 and under and $8.00 and under. Additionally there were five format-based categories which included 1.5 liter bottles, 3 liter casks, tetra-pack cartons, half bottles (375 milliliters) and splits (187milliliters).