The Tasting Panel magazine

January 2014

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WHO'S WHO Rockin' Asheville DESPITE NORTH CAROLINA'S DRACONIAN LIQUOR LAWS, THIS ARTSY MOUNTAIN TOWN IS MAKING WAVES story and photos by Fred Minnick N orth Carolina is arguably America's most backward state when it comes to booze. Bars must purchase product from state-run ABC stores at a ten percent higher rate than consumers. Yes, the trade pays more for product than the consumer. Adding insult to injury, the state requires an ugly orange tax sticker on every liquor bottle sitting behind the bar. And just to make sure the bottles are not reused, ABC inspectors sort through the trash to ensure the labels are scraped off. Great use of taxpayer money! So, I brought my empathy to Asheville . . . and learned that this art town is rocking the national scene in food, whiskey, wine, beer and saké. BEER Asheville, North Carolina, is a beer town. With 34 brewery destinations listed in the Craft Beer Guide of Western North Carolina, more than half belong to the Asheville area, and the beers are beautiful. But there's one brewery that impressed me with its business sense. Hello, Hi-Wire Brewing, the only Asheville brewer that makes lager year-round and is only the third Asheville brewer to bottle its beer. While the Asheville brewery loves its local market, the six-month-old Hi-Wire is eying national distribution. "People come to Asheville just for beer, and I believe this will become the craft beer capital of the world," says co-founder Adam Charnack. "Our goal is to be one of the smallest breweries in the world with mass sixpack bottle distribution." WINE Nestled on the 8,000-acre Biltmore Estate, the Biltmore Winery boasts lovely and affordable wines mostly made from California grapes. Despite their best efforts, winemakers Bernard Delille and Sharon Fenchak cannot depend on North Carolina for grape growing and are forced to import 80 percent of their fruit. "The weather is just too hectic," Fenchak says. Nonetheless, with more than 600,000 visitors a year, Biltmore Winery is the country's most visited winery. So they're doing something right. I highly recommend the Biltmore Estate Chateau Reserve Blanc de Blancs. It's tropical fruit–forward, refreshing and balanced. Grape gurus: Biltmore winemakers Bernard Delille (left) and Sharon Fenchak. Craft beer duo: Hi-Wire founders Adam Charnack (left) and Matt Greff. 104  /  the tasting panel  /  january 2014 TP0114_66-108.indd 104 12/19/13 9:48 PM

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