Galloping Goose can't keep enough Cabernet Franc on the shelves during first weekend

Told from across the Mason-Dixon Line that several wineries should be opening in Maryland over the next few months, according to the executive director of the Maryland Winery Association. Kevin Atticks wrote in an e-mail Monday that Galloping Goose Vineyards in Westminster sold out of its Cabernet Franc at its grand opening this past weekend.

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He noted that late winter/spring opening include Knob Hall Winery in Hagerstown, DeJon Vineyards in Hydes (in Baltimore County, near Boordy Vineyards), in addition to two others on the mid/lower Eastern Shore.

Turkey's on table for class at Chaddsford

So what's going on at Chaddsford Winery? You could probably ask that question year-round and get some sort of answer. Pretty much the busiest of all the regional wineries is cooking up an event called Turkey Tastings for the next three Sundays, beginning Nov. 7

Its wine educators will pair dry white wines, dry red wines and some sweet wines with honey brined turkey, herb stuffing, roasted yam wedges, seasonal vegetables, cranberry relish and pie. In essense, it's your pre Thanksgiving laboratory all for the cost of $20. For reservations, call 610.388.6221.

At the bottom of Eric Miller's always-interesting vintage notes is a short piece about the origin of a new wine recently released called Essence. He writes of a trip that he and Lee took to Priorato, Spain, last June. "There, Alvaro Palacios was kind enough to allow us an extraordinary tour of his extraordinary vineyards and winery. There we experienced his [costly] magnificent blend of Terroir, what his mountainous, oddly planted mix of varieties could transform into a landscape of smells and flavors. There I tasted an immaculate picture where no one could say this image had too much sunset, too much heat of the day, too much Cabernet, too little Syrah. There I dreamed of my own landscape reaching beyond any single grape variety, deep into an unrestrained pure finesse of intrinsic geography and climate.

"And so, the day after we got home, I began blending a simple percentage mix of the best '07 grapes grown on the Miller Estate and vinified in my hands. We bottled it this spring and I truly feel it expresses the essence of what I can do as a winemaker with my dirt and my grapes and my lifetime of winemaking experience. It might not surprise you that we have named this terroir blend 'Essence.' It is a very small lot (71 cases), a blend of five reds grown on our estate and two additional reds from the region. I hope you’ll try it and lay down a bottle or two in your cellar."

Manatawny puts Meritage on sale for November

It's called Manatawny Creek Winery for a simple reason: the winery sits alongside the Manatawny Creek in central Pennsylvania, sporting a mailing address of Amityville. Manatawny is a native American term that the winery's Web site means: "Where we meet to drink." Well, I'll take their word for it.

Our one visit with another couple lasted a couple of hours, what with the snacks to nosh and the many wines that owner and winemaker Joeanne Levengood produces. I found my share of dry reds and whites to savor; and if you don't like those the line runs from sparkling to fruit to sweet to several end-of-the-evening beverages that will rock you quietly to sleep.

Levengood's newsletters are always a mix of tasting room sales and vineyard education, definitely worth sharing. They'll have their 2006 Meritage reduced by 30 percent for November, with an additional case discount. Perhaps a sign of what's going on today, this is the first time that the Meritage has ever been on sale. Meritage is a dry, oak-aged, red blend of the Bordeaux varieties that includes Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot.

Manatawny's annual wine and soup day is scheduled for next Saturday, the 7th. A beef and vegetable soup (and vegetable soup alone for the veg-heads) will be on the menu and paired with Chambourcin.

Levengood noted in her e-letter that rain has curtailed plans to use volunteers to pick, similar to a number of other wineries throughout the region. "This Saturday looks like a washout again," she wrote, "so it looks like the remaining grapes will get picked on weekdays. Sorry to everyone who wanted to help us pick on the weekends this year! It was so odd how it rained (or rain was predicted) on almost all of the weekends this fall."

And then there's my favorite part, the question of the month. Can wine bottles be reused.

Levengood: "We get lots of people wondering if they should bring back their empty wine bottles for us to reuse. We cannot do that because wine bottles need to be sterile when bottling. The bottles arrive to us from the manufacturing plant in a sterile condition, because very high temperatures are used to make glass wine bottles. The amount of time and energy required to sterilize a used wine bottle is prohibitive for us. So what should you do with your empty wine bottles? Give them to your home winemaking buddies. Or if you’re creative, check out the web for all kinds of ideas including wind chimes, candles, pourers and even cutting in half to make drinking glasses. And if you’re not creative or drink a lot of wine like we do, put your empty wine bottles in the recycle bin to get reused elsewhere."

For Allegro owner, another 'Christmas' behind him

I took it as a compliment knowing I had a little bit to do with owner and winemaker Carl Helrich's blog on his Allegro Vineyards Web site. He was the first winemaker I interviewed when I started this blog, and we have continued to talk off and on since then, sometimes for publication and other times just to catch up.

A couple months ago he rolled out the blog and provided his followers, including me, with lots of insight. His newest one was posted earlier this week at the end of harvest, what he calls the "best time of year. Think of it as Christmas," he adds a bit later.

What's fun about Carl is that he's not much for fluff; neither with his wines nor his comments. You know where you stand. and the blog reads that way, too: direct, lots of passion squeezing between the lines. "I will admit it makes me tired some," he writes later on in his post. "OK, a lot. I'm 39, and this is my 12th harvest. Not a lot, yet. But I can tell a difference. I still wake up early, too excited to sleep, but I can't go go go like I used to. Ray--my assistant winemaker--is starting to show it, too. When he first showed up here in his late 20s, he used to help with harvest then head to the bars. Now, four years later, it's been a few weeks since he's done that. We all get older, but the feelings for this only get stronger."

Two other things to mention about Allegro, located in The Brogue in southcentral Pennsylvania. A member of the Uncork York! trail, he will be participating in the trail's first Nouveau Weekend (or what they are calling New Wine Off The Vine) on Nov. 20-22. It will feature 10 of Uncork's wineries, including Allegro, which will be open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tickets are $10 per person and will include tours of the cellar and tastings, plus many of the wineries will pair with local restaurants for a wine and food extravaganza from Nov. 19-22.

In addition, Allegro's Bridge will be one of the wines features in my next Vintages column for In Central Pennsylvania magazine. A 2006 vintage, it's a Bordeaux-style Merlot blend with Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. He wrote in an e-mail that the wine, which sells for $27, pairs well with beef dishes and should hit its prime in 2011 (although you can certainly open it now). And if you're in a cellaring mood, he said it should keep its life anoter eight or nine years beyond its prime.

As for the name, Helrich wrote that "it was created initially in 2001 as a "bridge" between John Crouch's Cadenzas and mine. The 2001 Bridge was really nice, but not quite a Cadenza. In 2006, I felt that the wine wasn't quite Cadenza quality, but much better than our regular bottling. I brought back the name in 2006, and we bottled a 2007 as well. We may have one from 2009 . . . we'll see."

Encore: Piccolo back on Basignani shelves

Always like to hear the stories about how wines that aren't named after a grape or region are named. Generally there's a good story there to tell, and that's the case with Piccolo, produced by Basignani Winery in Sparks, Md., about a 12-minute ride off I-83 just north of Towson.

I'm planning to use that as one of the featured wines in Vintages, something I've started writing for In Central Pennsylvania magazine, which is published by the Patriot-News of Harrisburg.

Piccolo is a medium-bodied 50-50 red blend of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon that's heavy on fruit and light on tannins. It could handle any type of meat dish, and also partner quite well with anything pasta. Had it down at Basignani during the eye-popping post-picking lunch that Lynne puts on, and you couldn't have asked for anything nicer to go with the lasagna and complementary dishes she served. Gotta also like the cost, at $11.75.

Asked Lynne by e-mail how the wine got its name and got an answer along with a bit of a history lesson.

"Originally we made this wine about 8 years ago, because we had a really bad vintage (1996) and didn't want to sell our Cabernet as Cabernet because of the reputation that we had built up with that wine," she wrote. "So we decided to 'declassify' the wine, sell it cheaper, and come up with a different name. At the time Boordy had a wine they called 'Petit Cabernet,' meaning a lighter Cabernet, of course, actually meaning 'little' Cabernet. We decided to 'borrow' the name from them, but use the Italian version of little, which is 'piccolo.' We made several vintages of Piccolo over the years. It actually developed quite a following. We haven't made it for several years, but Bert decided to release one this year. We already had a ready public that was familiar with it and would be thrilled to see it again. Probably more information than you wanted or needed, but there it is. In short, it means 'Little' Cabernet."

For those vested in growth of regional wine, DrinkLocalWine a site for sore eyes

It's already a few weeks ago since the second Regional Wine Week, where bloggers from places other than the West Coast chimed in on wines and wineries in their region. All the content was linked to this DrinkLocalWine site.

Co-founder Dave McIntyre, who writes on wines on a blog called wineline, responded to an e-mail Tuesday morning about how it went by saying that that had more people involved this year and from more states. "We are thrilled to have some coverage of Michigan, more coverage of North Carolina and Georgia," he wrote. "We also have tremendous interest from Texas bloggers, many of whom attended our first DrinkLocalWine.com conference in Dallas in August."

The founders noted on their site that they welcomed more contributors to Regional Wine Week despite the economy, which has taken out some members of the mainstream media as well as other independent bloggers.

"So this year's output was as welcome as it was unexpected," they wrote. "But it shouldn't have been. We, more than anyone, should know that regional wine is an accepted, full-fledged member of the wine community. That people -- a lot of people -- want to write about it should not be surprising."

And next year's, the third annual, already is tentatively planned for Oct. 9-16. Planning also is under way on a second DrinkLocalWine.com conference. The first one earlier this year was held in Texas, in believe. Next year's seems targeted for a location in northern Virginia during the weekend of April 24-25.

Va La's Vietri: 'No predictions of doom or diamonds for either color of wine yet'

Checked in with Anthony Vietri at Va La Vineyards in Avondale, Pa., for his early assessment of his harvest. Summed up, it's a little too early to tell.

"As far as the harvest to date," he wrote, "I can't speak for anyone else's experiences, as I have not really spoken to anyone else about their experience, but I will say that it has been highly unusual vintage for us here on the little hill. Whites are looking strangely good, for what we are looking for here. The jury is still out on the reds for us; I make no predictions of doom or diamonds for either color of wine yet. "

Two items of interest off his Web site.

1, Their local friends, Andrea’s Best of Italy, are now offering bagged lunches for the Va La Nation. Each little sack of goodness includes a side, a bottled water, and authentic bag for $10 (US). All selections are dolphin-free. So if you feel like taking a little lunch at the vineyard after your tasting, you can pick up a bag on your way out to visit. Menu, directions, and info www.andreasbestofitaly.com

2, The Brandywine Book of Food features recipes, chefs, and winemakers of the Brandywine. (And yes, that's their little vineyard on the front cover). A special book signing will take place from noon to 4:01 p.m. on Nov. 14-15. Authors Roger Morris, Cathleen L. Ryan and photographer Ella Morris will be in the Galleria to celebrate the premier of their beautiful new book The Brandywine Book of Food. According to the site, the advance buzz promises this book to be a defining image of the Valley for years to come. "They will be available for these two days only to sign copies, answer questions, poke with sticks, or just stare at and whisper," the site says.