Chiming in on Aussie wines

This response to Pat Savoie's comment comes from Napa winemaker Paul G. Smith of OnThEdge Winery:

“The Aussie wineries are charged a 40% tax on wines sold in Australia, strongly promoting the export market. Here in Napa there is no way we can grow the quantity of grapes to produce fishy or other critter wines for what they sell for here. Some of these wines are produced specifically for the US market.”

Two thumbs up for OnThEdge Charbono

Threw a couple more questions at Pat Savoie after posting her last response, one on what kind of bargains were coming out of New Zealand/Australia, and also asked her how insulated Pennsylvania would be to price hikes since the state had already established good relationships with the markets in California and the Old World. Here's her reply:

"Not that there aren't values in Aust and NZ -- they have gone out of their way to price for the US market -- but prices have crept up. I don't see the level of value that exists in other areas. Yellow Tail at $6 or $7 is not a value to me.

"Yes, in PA you have to power of the state buying machine to hold prices down. One of my favorite wines was accepted by the LCB -- OnThEdge Charbono. The Wine Media Guild of NY, of which I am co-chair, had an all-inclusive Charbono tasting earlier this month (all 14 producers!) and the 2005 OTE was one of the favorites."

The making of Bedlam

Ed Boyce and his wife Sarah O’Herron note on their Web site that the idea of growing vines and making wine became increasingly appealing as they considered a destination for the next chapter in their careers. The researching and traveling to other vineyards only strengthened that commitment, so they bought a parcel in Mt. Airy, Md., and planted their first grapes for what would be called Black Ankle Vineyards in 2003.

That, Boyce says in a phone interview Wednesday night, was a significant hurdle to cross.
“You know, when you go into the vineyard business, the biggest and scariest decisions come first,” he says. “It’s where to plant and what to plant and then you have 50 years where you can’t change either one.”

Five years later, both no doubt are more relaxed about their decision. Entering their first batch in the Maryland Winemakers’ Choice Awards, Black Ankle recently walked away with three gold medal, including top honors for a white blend they call Bedlam.

Boyce spent much of the interview taking listeners through its evolution, how their intent to mix together their four white grapes – chardonnay, viognior, gruner veltliner and albarino – took on a new dimension when they discovered a visitor among their plantings of syrah.

“Two hundred vines turned out to be what we call our white syrah, a nursery mistake,” he says of the muscat vines. “We just decided to keep them. So we have a few hundred vines of Muscat.” Not perfect for these climes, he notes, but it "adds a really nice little spice and fruit component to the wine.”

On top of this success comes the opening of the tasting room in what they hope will be mid-July. It’s an endeavor that you can follow via a sequence of pictures appearing on the Web site. The most recent photo, taken earlier this week, is posted with this story. “All down the line we’ve tried to sort of sit back and say, ‘What do we have on the farm that we can use to build this building?’ and it’s turned into a very interesting . . . I think we’re very proud of the way it’s turning out.”

Happy birthday Woodhall

From my friends at Woodhall Wine Cellars in Parkton, Md., this note from the June newsletter:

"It doesn’t seem possible, but Woodhall has reached the quarter century mark. And to celebrate it, we’ve decided to run a two week birthday party beginning July 19th and ending on August 1st. For the whole period, there will be a gigantic sale on selected Woodhall wines (Pinot Noir, Rose’ of Sangiovese, Chardonnay 2005, Cabernet Franc, Tuscano and Angler Red) and on weekends we’ll be conducting special wine and food tastings and other surprises in the winery. More on that next month."

If my wife and I have hung around at any winery on a regular basis, it has been this one, located just off I-83 about 20 minutes south of York. There's a restaurant on the premises and lots of nice people -- take a bow Al, Debbie and Chris, to name a few. Like virtually every winery we've visited in both states, we're greeted there with a big smile and answers to all our questions. And, of course, lots of wines to choose from. Congrats, guys.

Savoie: Rough time for Old standbys

Following up on Tom Ward's recent comments regarding the impact of the weak dollar and other factors on the cost of a bottle of wine -- particularly the cases coming from abroad -- is this response from wine author and journalist Pat Savoie, a wine columnist for Primetime A&E magazine. My appreciation to Pat for checking in.

She writes in an e-mail:

"Wine prices. Afraid there is no good news either from the Euro-bloated Old World or the wineries of California, which have worked their way through what was a glut of plantings and supply. The overproduction has dried up. Frost has imperiled the '08 crop. The Euro continues to float at high-water mark, and importers and retailers, many of whom have tried to keep prices down, are now passing along the exchange-based price increases.

"In addition, the rush to plant new vineyards in CA has tapered off as land, vines, supplies and labor costs have increased, which means the supply is not increasing, so the value of grapes will climb.

"However, despite the economy, consumers don't seem to be trading down to less-expensive wines, probably because wine has insinuated itself onto the tabletop-- as part of the meal. I've seen research indicating that people are drinking more wine at home as restaurant prices continue upward. In fact, the highest sales growth is in wines priced at $12 a bottle or more.

"So, a good strategy is to focus on wines from areas that are not smacking down the dollar. Argentina and Chile are sources of good value wines. Portugal, despite its Euro currency, also offers a lot of great wines at bargain prices. South Africa is a great source. In the US, consider wines from NY's Finger Lakes and Long Island or from Virginia, Oregon and Washington.

"Or, start drinkng all those Old World wines you have been saving."

Heading into Tuscany? Let Vittorio take you

Glimpses of the LaSala Winery and Fiaschetteria
del Chianti eatery.


It took years to finally get to Europe, but once we got there in January the biggest surprise was the beauty of Florence, Italy. Rome, of course, deserves its accolades. There's nothing like Venice either. But we could have stayed a week in Florence, in part to see EVERYTHING and in other cases to see some things twice, like the incredible view accessed from a high spot across the Arno River at Piazza Michelangelo, and the centerpiece of that picture-perfect spot, the Duomo. It was at the Piazza that Vittorio Del Bono Venezze picked us up in his van on a springlike January morning and gave us, since we were his only guests that day, what amounted to a private tour of Chianti country.

That included a few hours walking around the estate at LaSala Winery, sitting in our own classroom in the tasting room while Hilary took us through the basics of savoring and appreciating a glass of wine, then stopping at an eatery called Fiaschetteria del Chianti in the town of San Casciano in Val di Pesa and wandering down into the cellar for a Tuscan meal. It's of one of several restaurants that Vittorio uses as a place to stop between wineries to fill the tummy and interact with his passengers. You felt worlds away from reality downstairs, a hideaway composed of brick and stone. The final stop was Villa Carfaggio, settled amid the Tuscan hills. In that Vittorio was a perfect guide, this is a chance to say thanks and plug his service, which still includes the Chianti Classico tour on Mondays and Wednesdays starting at 9.45 a.m. and on Thursday starting at 10 a.m.

Vittorio wrote in an e-mail that, like almost everyone else, he's been hurt by the cost of the Euro for Americans. "The weak dollar has affected my business . . . 20%," he said. "Now people are more inclined to get my semi-private tour instead of the private one that it is getting too expensive." And the cost of fuel? "The gas price for the moment [has not] hit my business."

Maryland announces Winemasters' winners

Courtesy of Kevin Atticks of the Maryland Wineries Association, a link to the 2008 Winemasters' Choice Awards following a gathering of winemakers and winery proprietors in April.

On the holiday, a bit of a global perspective

Tom Ward says his interest in wine began to grow in 1980 when he started working in the advertising and marketing field. Seven years later, he took on the role of building the subscriber base for a publication called Wine Advocate, under the direction of Robert Parker Jr. The two of them remain friends; in fact, Ward wrote in an e-mail, “Keep an eye out on the wine news … [Parker] just did a wine tasting on the Great Wall of China!”

Since 2000, Ward has been working full time in the wine trade, largely in sales and extensively with imports. “I helped to set up and run an import company [Vinocopia],” he wrote, “did a lot of work for the Australian Trade Commission, all done as an ‘independent contractor’ under the company name Green Tree Wine Company. He also has been working with winemaker Paul Smith, whose OnThEdge Winery in Calistoga, Calif., includes former Eagles and St. Louis Rams coach Dick Vermeil as a partner. Those include the Jean Louis Vermeil line of wines, which pays homage to the ancestors of Vermeil that, prior to Prohibition, used to own and farm that same Napa Valley land.

Ward responded quickly to my e-mail inquiry about how the weak dollar is affecting imports and whether buyers might see any trends during what figures to be a summer long on crisis and short on stability. He wrote:

“I just checked historical data Paul. The Euro on May 23, 2001 was worth just under 86-cents US; it now takes a little more than $1.57 US to buy a Euro. That is an 83% increase in the value of their currency.

“I was an Economics Major in college and studied under two great professors who were trained at the University of Chicago, so I understand market financial dynamics quite well. Our current administration has always favored a weaker dollar to drive down the cost of US produced goods overseas. Not an opinion…they have made plenty of statements supporting this position. What is scary (and this is commentary) is that we are now at the mercy of market forces that could prevent us from getting back to any of level of relative equilibrium, and indeed could make the gap more dramatic, for years to come.

“In terms of how that has affected the price of imported wines, the brunt of the dollar devaluation has been picked up by (1) foreign wine producers and (2) the wine trade, especially importers. I haven’t formally studied pricing changes on imports, but I’d venture to guess they have only increased about 1/3 versus the 83 percent valuation swing in the dollar; that’s a rather wide margin discrepancy.

Just some things to consider . . ."

The obvious follow-up question was two-pronged: How much longer will producers and importers carry the load before the burden switches to the consumer, and for American consumers looking for bargains, how steady will prices remain on South American and Australian wines?

Ward responded within a couple of hours: “Actually South American wines haven’t gone up as much in price because the Argentine and Chilean Peso have remained stable versus the US Dollar relative to the dramatic changes of the Euro,” he said. “But there is another factor; consider that prime Napa Cabernet Sauvignon fruit now goes for $6,000+ a ton. That translates to almost $10 per bottle. Doesn’t sound like a lot, but that is just the cost of fruit! Now factor in oak (another $4 per bottle for French Oak, again thanks to the weak dollar), two plus year aging, cost of bottles, labels, corks, capsules…you get idea. The cost just to produce the wine is probably $20+. Then the winery has to make a profit, the distributor has to make a profit, the retailer has to make profit – voila, you are at $55 a bottle.

“Alternatively, I have a Spanish producer I’ve represented whose family has owned the vines going back to 1640 (documented). Low tax structure, government support, etc, etc. … they can put out a 90-point Wine Advocate rated wine that retails for under $20 a bottle. Now in reality they are assuredly selling it at a lower price point than they would like to because they, like every producer in the world, want very, very much to be in the U.S. marketplace. Life is a series of tradeoffs, and their presence in the US market is what helped to get them in front of the Wine Advocate and help to build their brand for many years to come.

Lots of dynamics at play . . .”

Listing the Pennsylvania award winners

This list and link are courtesy of Jennifer Eckinger, of the Pennsylvania Winery Association, whose help has been so valuable in my getting this blog off the ground.

2008 Keystone Wine Competition

When: March 1, 2008
Where: Crowne Plaza Hotel, Cromwell, Conn.
Conducted by: Amenti Del Vino
Entries: 354
Winners: 180 - 79 bronze, 60 silver, 35 gold, 6 double gold, 4 special awards

BEST WINE IN COMPETITION
2006 Cherry Valley Vineyards Marechal Foch
BEST RED WINE IN COMPETITION
2006 Cherry Valley Vineyards Marechal Foch
BEST WHITE WINE IN COMPETITION
2007 Pinnacle Ridge Winery Riesling
BEST FRUIT WINE IN COMPETITION
2006 Rose Bank Winery Apple Mulled

For further results, including a listing of all award-winning wines of the 2008 Keystone Wine Competition, visit pennsylvaniawine.com/Awards.aspx. That link includes not only all the winners from the recent Keystone competition, but lists Pennsylvania wines that have earned recognition in other regional and national competitions dating back to 1999.

A chat with Fridays Creek's Cleary

The photos are courtesy of Fridays Creek Winery. They include (clockwise from above) a waterfall in front of the building; the remodeled portion of the original tobacco barn; grapes on the vine; the tasting room (bar); and vines and the winery building.

Frank Cleary of Fridays Creek Winery in Owings, Md., has had about two years to see first-hand all that's involved in running a winery. Fridays Creek opened in August 2006.

One are the rules that wineries in Maryland live by. "I am just amazed at what a tangled
web [it is]," he said of the state's wine laws during an interview Thursday. "Maryland wine laws are just as royal mess, I dont know how else to say it, and it really needs to be something that is looked at from a consumers standpoint."

Much of what Cleary was refering to was covered in this Baltimore Sun piece that was published March 31, 2008.

"I'm [also] really just flabbergasted at which the speed of the new hybrids are coming about," Cleary said.

One thing that Cleary doesn't expect to see is the state's capacity ever catch up with its demand for grapes, an issue covered in this Capital News Service story. "There will never in my opinion, ever be excess capacity [of grapes] in the state of Maryland," he said. "California and New York have excess capacity of grapes to winemakers; but both of those, of course, Califronia is 100, 150 years old in its grapegrowing and New York, I”d say, is 75 or so years old in their grapegrowing capacity. That’s not something I can see in the foreseeable future as far as excess capacity."

On the other coast, Russian River Passport debuts

While this blog is directed toward what is happening in this region, it doesn't preclude my looking nationally for stories and events that wine drinkers here would find interesting. Such is the case with the inaugural Russian River Passport Weekend, scheduled for the first weekend of June in the northern California.

The Russian River Valley is the largest of 13 appellations that make up Sonoma Wine Country, according to the Web site, and includes more acres of vineyards than Napa.

I e-mailed a couple of questions to the Passport site and within a couple of hours received these answers from Eric Hall. The photo, by the way, should be credited to Chris Knapp.

Q: How many passports are you limiting this to and what prompted you to start this event?

A: One thousand passports this year, and I’ve been doing a October event called Pinot on the River (see www.pinotfestival.com) for the last 5 years, and a lot of the local wineries make some great non pinot wines, that I thought would be great to get people up here to try them too!

Q: Modeled after something others are doing?

A: The “Passport” model is a well understood one out here, and there a many successful ones in California., the Russian River area did not happen to have one tho.

Q: For those traveling from our neck of the woods, are any hotels tying into this?

A: Yes see www.russianriverpassport.com/accomodations.html

Q: How far apart are all these wineries? Be one of those events I'd love to try all, obviously impossible in one weekend. Seeing how it goes and then judging whether to expand it to more weekends next year?

A: I’d that end to end, they are within a less than 10 mile radius. Hard to say whether we’d expand the days, more likely just more wineries.
Thanks!

What follows is the release. For me, something to circle on next year's calendar.

Russian River Passport Weekend
June 7 & 8, 2008 40 Wineries - Great Wines, Food & Entertainment
40 acclaimed wineries from the famous Russian River Valley will open their cellars to wine lovers in the first Russian River Passport, to be held June 7-8, 2008. The event will showcase the wineries, vineyards and exceptional beauty of the Russian River Valley wine region.
There are more than 150 wineries and 300 growers in the Russian River Valley, all producing a variety of world class wines to please any wine lover. The goal of the Russian River Passport is to introduce these wineries - both large and small - to wine lovers and partygoers from all over Northern California.

Winery locations will also feature great food and/or entertainment for their guests.
Since Russian River Passport is limited to only small number of participants and offers access to many smaller wineries that normally have no public access, it allows participants a chance to speak to and connect with the winemakers and vineyard owners on a personal level, and learn more about the history and topography of Russian River Valley and its wines.
For more info, either e-mail Info@passportrussianriver.com or visit passportrussianriver.com.

Passports available here (and by contacting participating wineries) Saturday, June 7, and Sunday, June 8, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Your ticket will grant you access to all of the following:

· Commemorative wine glass
· Wine tasting at up to 40 wineries
· Prerelease, library and limited edition winery-only wines
· Discount pricing on select wines
· A wide variety of great food and desserts.
· Live music
· Tours
· Wine Education directly from the people who make the wines
Ticket InformationTo purchase Advance Tickets: weekend pass $89 (direct from wineries) Saturday or Sunday $59 (online only).

Pinnacle's Knapp on wines and winemaking

You might say that April was just bubbly for Brad Knapp of Pinnacle Winery in Kutztown, after receiving the news a few weeks ago that the Finger Lakes Competition awarded he and his winery eight awards. This international competition gave his BRUT rosé a double gold. In addition, Pinnacle Ridge (see below) won two silver and five bronze medals. Knapp said you can't base your year on the awards you win. "I try not to get too wrapped up in the awards and try to not use them as a guide for how I'm doing," he said during a lengthy interview earlier this afternoon. Knapp talks about everything from the fun and drudgery of the winery work to the Day in the Vineyard program that will be held June 7 and June 8 at Pinnacle Ridge -- which will include Knapp and the winemakers from nearby Clover Hill Winery and Vynecrest Winery -- to naming three of his own favorite wines.

I have taken the release about the Pinnacle awards from the Pennsylvania Wine & Wineries Web site and have pasted it below:

Competing against over 2,300 wines worldwide, Pennsylvania, though considered neophyte in the wine community at large, once again proved itself as the serious albeit, upstart contender with this award shared only by 36 out of nearly 500 winning wineries. This year, 1600 medal winning wines in total were selected by the competition’s forty wine judges. The Finger Lakes Competition is one of a few US based International Wine Competitions and allows winemakers to not only show off their wines against the Californians and the New York wineries but those in Canada and abroad as well. This competition is nearly 10 years old; and this year, about 2300 wineries participated drawing from 44 United States and 14 countries worldwide.

Pinnacle Ridge Winery’s BRUT rosé is produced via the ‘methode champenoise’ the traditional French method for making sparkling wines, often casually referred to as champagnes. The use of this ‘methode’ is rather distinct because few wineries outside of Champagne, France produce bubblies in this traditional, classic style. Pinnacle Ridge, touching back to the cultural legacy of champagne making, opts to make its sparkling wines in a very, rustic and hand-made fashion including operating out of the historic farm’s old potato cellar, now champagne house, as it is essential to keep the pressurized bottles cool at all times. Pinnacle Ridge Winery’s proprietor and winemaker Brad Knapp has been producing these classically styled bubblies since 1993.

What makes a BRUT rosé? The style selected for the production of this vintage is a rosé produced out of black, Pinot Noir grapes harvested from the estate vineyard at Pinnacle Ridge Winery. The fruit is carefully hand-picked and whole berry pressed as per the “Methode Champenoise”. The delicate juice is cold fermented and allowed to settle for approximately six months prior to the second bottling. The wine ages for two years before being finished in the traditional way. The resultant wine shows a delicate, salmon-color and is crowned with a frothy wreathe of bubbles. Although the color and festive nature suggests that this indeed might be a sweeter bubbly, it is not. It is a true Brut and its light and delicately soft character makes it appealing to virtually any taste palate and a terrific partner to any meal or celebration.

Upon hearing the news about this extraordinary win, Brad Knapp responded, “We’re very pleased with this prestigious medal. Sparkling wines are receiving more and more accolades and were proud to be part of the Finger Lakes Competition and proud to receive this award.“

Pinnacle Ridge Winery could not just walk away with only the Double Gold for this bubbly from the competition, it was graced with additional accolades from this competition such as a pair of SILVER MEDALS, one for its 2005 VERITAS, which is a hearty red blend of Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon and the other for its 2006 MERLOT. BRONZE MEDALS showered five of the winery’s other varietals: 2007 TRAMINETTE, 2007 NAKED CHARDONNAY, 2007 CHAMBOURCIN ROSé, 2006 CHAMBOURCIN as well as one of the winery’s other signature bubblies: CUVEE CHARDONNAY.

This is not only tremendous acknowledgement of the quality winemaking by an individual winery in eastern Pennsylvania, but an exceptional representation of how far winemaking has evolved in both Berks and Lehigh Counties. PINNACLE RIDGE WINERY, located outside of Kutztown, is an active member of both the Lehigh Valley Wine Trail and the Berks Country Wine Trail and is a beloved destination to many customers per year - over half of whom are tourists who have come to see and enjoy this area of Pennsylvania and its burgeoning wine community.
PINNACLE RIDGE WINERY features many award-winning wines, but for the champagne lover, it is well-keep secret that it is one of the few wineries in the state of Pennsylvania that produces quality sparkling wines. PINNACLE RIDGE WINERY and winemaker Brad Knapp, winner of over two hundred wine awards at the state and international level, has been delighting wine lovers old and new since 1993. The Knapp family and staff are proud to be able to preserve beautiful countryside landscapes and the agricultural heritage of Pennsylvania farming through the growing of its own grapes in its nearly 15 acres of grapes from its Kutztown and Kempton vineyards.
For more information about the winery and its wines, please visit: www.pinridge.com or email: pinnacle_ridge_winery@yahoo.com

More Mondavi

Saw this testimonial to Robert Mondavi on the winedude's blog site linked off winebusiness.com. And my shout out to regional wine owners for reaction to his death brought this take by Carl Helrich of Allegro Vineyards in The Brogue, Pa.:

"Interestingly, Allegro had first-hand experience with the Mondavi Wine Machine. In the early, back when Opus One was just announcing what the name of the joint venture with Mouton-Rothschild would be named, Allegro was making a wine called "Opus 1". And neither entity had secured rights to the name in PA. Mondavi sent his lawyers to PA, and an agreement was struck. Allegro would stop using the name for a cash settlement. Additionally, there was a gentleman's agreement that Mondavi come to a press conference and taste Allegro's wines and say that they were good. The hope was that the guy who put CA on the map could do the same for PA. Mondavi never showed.

"Secondly, one of Mondavi's great business innovations was to make wineries a tourist destination by offering winery tours. This was a great business model for most wineries. Unfortunately, I curse his name every time I get a phone call from someone wanting a tour, knowing full well that they don't want to buy any wine.

"He was a great business man. Good wines, great marketer. Helped our industry more than any one individual. I just wish he had been less capitalistic and more wholistic.

Inside the Brandywine Trail's big events

We wound up unintentionally making this an all Chaddsford Winery weekend, but that's OK. After talking to Eric Miller late last week, we managed to grab his wife Lee on a wet and cool Sunday afternoon to go a little bit beyond the headlines. In this case, we talked about what's involved with the two major special events for the Brandywine Valley Wine Trail: the March Barrels on the Brandywine and the Harvest Festival. The latter, Lee says in the wide-ranging interview, will be expanded when it's time to pick the grapes and celebrate the harvest in late September.

Patriarch of California wine dies at age 94

Robert Mondavi died Friday at his Napa Valley home. He was 94.

Pulling a couple of praragraphs from the obituary that's running on forbes.com, Mondavi was the son of Italian immigrants had worked in the wine industry since graduating from Stanford University with a degree in economics the 1930s. He started at the Charles Krug Winery, in which his parents had invested after leaving Minnesota for California. A tempestuous relationship with his brother, Peter, led to a split from the family business and he opened his eponymous Napa Valley winery in Northenr California in 1966 at age 52.

Called in a bold innovator, Mondavi put his wines up against French vintages in blind tastings and championed the use of cold fermentation, stainless steel tanks and French oak barrels, which have become commonplace in California's $20 billion wine industry today. After beating some well-known French vintages in a 1976 blind tasting, Mondavi set up the first French-American wince venture, joining forces with Baron Philippe de Rothschild. The pair developed the ultra-premium Opus One at Oakville, producing their first vintage in 1979.

Mondavi turned over day-to-day control of the winery to his sons in the mid--1990s, but a second generation of sibling disagreements, intense competition from other New World wines and a glut of California production in the early 2000s took its toll on the business, which was bought out for $1.3 billion by Constellation Brands in 2004.

I've done a couple of things to add some depth to Mondavi. I've asked a select group of winery owners in this region for their reaction, good and bad, and included a link to today's New York Times story on the death and life of Mondavi and a link to the Mondavi Web site, which includes his biography, his lifetime achievements and quotes.

Taste of Pennsylvania set for inaugural

The debut of what organizers hope will be an annual event will be held May 31 and June 1 at the York Fairgrounds. The Taste of Pennsylvania Wine and Music Festival will feature three bands on Saturday, the 31st, and three more on Sunday, the 1st. A total of nine wineries will be represented. Tickets are $15; at the gate the cost is $20 and it's $10 for a designated driver. They are available at Nell's, Saubel's and Wtzel's Shurfine locations. More on the event can be found at yorkwinefest.com.

Spokesman Brian Dudley was kind enough to respond by e-mail to a few questions about the event. Here is the exchange:

Q: Give me a quick overview of what came together to move this from an idea into a reality?
A: I was Commander of the Sons of the American Legion for seven years and over that time we made donations each year to many organizations, however the donations were usually $100 and I wanted to do more. So with my interest in wine, wine making and festivals I determined that a wine festival in York would be a great way for the SAL to make money to allow us to make bigger donations.

Q: What kind of demographic are you expecting? Who's going to these things these days?
A: Well, the typical crowd is the 30-to-55-year-old crowd of middle to upper class wine drinkers, however I think that many people enjoy wine and that is why Sunday's musical entertainment is more classic rock, something for the late 20s and early 30s crowd. I personally am 33 and I began drinking and making wine in my early 20s, so I do not think wine has to be for a certain crowd, you just have to enjoy wine to enjoy our festival.

Q: I know there's wine and I know there's music. Break down some of the things that visitors will get a chance to do?
A: For the admission price you will receive a wine glass that allows you wine tastings from all wineries throughout the day. So bring your chair or blanket and stay for the day of great music and wine. Next year I hope to add food demos from local cheifs, as well as an amatuer wine compitition.

Q: Will there be wine for sale there?
A: Wine is for sale at the event and we will be offering a wine check system, meaning that you can buy wine at a winery, have it marked; it will then be sent to the wine pickup area and when you leave you can go pick up all your wine. This will help those who want to buy several bottles to several cases, as they do not have to carry the wine around and they can take their car right to the pick up station when they are ready to leave.

Q: Tell me about the response, both from the public and the wineries? Looks like you did well in getting a mix of wineries from all over the region.
A: I am hearing from a lot of people that they are coming and hearing our commecials so I hope for a good turn out. I have been told that PA just doesn't have the same number of wine drinkers as Northern Maryland and I just do not think that is true and I hope our event shows that York knows its wine and will turn out for a festival. As for the wineries, I have gotten a great response, especially from the local wineries who want to see an event like this in York County. It can only help to showcase their wine by bringing wine drinkers to York County. As for wineries from out of the area, they have also been great and this will be a good chance for them to showcase their wine. The selection of wineries was very intential. I wanted to showcase the "Taste of Pennsylvania" by bringing together wine from across Pennsylvania. Wine grown in the soil and climate of the Lake Erie area will taste very different from wine grown and made in York Co. and I wanted to show that to everyone. Pennsylvania is a great wine region with a lot of promise and I hope to continue this event for a long time, to help the SAL and the Pennsylvania wineries.

Chaddsford's Eric Miller checks in

Eric Miller of Chaddsford Winery describes the business of making wine in Pennsylvania as evolving, comparing some parts of the state to how he remembers New York 35 years ago when he and his father were just starting out. No doubt, he agrees, it's encouraging that each year brings the opening of new wineries. As for national respect? "We're not ready for national recognition," he says in an interview that touches on several subjects. "The American consumer just learned how to say Pinot Noir and Pinot Grigio. They cannot say Pennsylvania yet."

York Uncorked, Year 3

So how do the folks who plan and execute the annual Tour de Tanks/Uncork York Wine Trail event top what happened this March?

Easy. Alison Smith, public relations coordinator for the York County Convention & Visitors Bureau, said earlier this week that they’ll look at the feedback and consider ways to improve this now established prelude to spring.

“I think we always want more options,” Smith said. “We’re thinking about changing the wine and dine a little bit, [to] more BYOB. We’ve seen people want to be able to sample what they’ve purchased [at the wineries]. So we’re looking at that trend.”

Among the other considerations is tweaking the food component that’s part of the winery tour and tastings. As unique as the wineries and their owners and winemakers are, so is the food that sits aside the tasting area. Some have their finger foods catered; others prepare it themselves.

“That is something I will tell you we are working on, kind of revamping,” Smith said. “I think that’s one of the personality things that come through . . . [but] it’s not just about what you like, and I think that’s what we have to try to convey. We’re just kind of reassessing the way we do some of the thing sin the program, and I would say the food is an important part of the program.

“Since we are a bureau, the wineries do have a relationship with us, but they also all kind of work together and they decide as a group what they want to do. And so it’s kind of more about getting them all in the same place and deciding as a collective what’s best for everyone, not just the individual. It is something we’re looking into for next year. … to try and figure out the best way to do it for the audience.”

Otherwise, the ingredients are all in place for this event to continue to expand. More interest. A widening demographic, Smith said. And additional wineries getting set to open, potentially adding to the 11 now that are part of the wine trail.

“We have heard of a few new ones popping up,” Smith said. “Nothing definite on any of them joining our trail at the moment. But I think because you have such great committed vintners that they’ve shown other people who, five, 10 years ago, might have been intimidated. I think the Tour de Tanks event has a lot to do with that … bringing lots of different kinds of people to wine.”

It all began in 2006 as a Saturday-only event, but it made sense for several reasons – you try and compress stops at four or five wineries into one day, for one – to add Sundays the following year. Planners continued that schedule this year, once again through the month of March.

“Sundays also generated additional overnight visits for us, which kind of gets at the heart of what we do here at the bureau,” Smith said. “This year, we actually had an increase of almost 2500 visits overall. That was really good for us. And we had more of an extended draw. We saw visitors from Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York state, and the ever-popular DC metro area. I think it’s convenient for them. They head north, and we’re about an hour and a half to two hours, and they feel like they’re in a different country.”

No exaggerating there. And what they find when they arrive is a succession of what could be termed open houses. “Something I think is really unique about our trail is that they are family-owned wineries,” Smith said. “What’s really interesting is that you get to see the personalities of the winemaker come through in the wine; the sophistication of a European- influenced blend comes through with Allegro, with Carl Helrich and just his wealth of knowledge on not only his own vineyard and not just the scientific composition of the soil in the area but just the way he talks about everything, not just wine. With Charles Aldinger and his friends [Buck Mortorff and his brother Junior, whjo are Aldinger’s partners] from Four Springs, they’re very kind of jovial joking guys, and that comes through in their wine, which is very well-balanced, very clean, crisp flavor, but you always kind of get that fruit in the background, that variety of fruit in the background.

“And Dick Naylor [of Naylor Wine Cellars in Stewartstown, Pa.], he likes to talk about that he was told many, many moons ago that grapes grow where peaches grow, and in York County, especially southern York County, there are areas that all you see in the summer are peach trees,” she added. “So if that says anything about the quality of the wine in the area, we really kind of have something unique.”

That’s paid off in bigger numbers, in visitors to the wineries and the restaurants for the wine-and-dine aspect, and the overnights. For instance, increasing from four to 10 days in 2007, the bureau saw an increase of 3,054 visits, and since 2006 has seen a hike of 5,475 visits at all wineries. All these numbers come from the bureau. Smith said that during the first year, 2006, one winery saw an increase in wine sales of 469 percent from the previous March without the event.

It’s very likely the event will remain in March. Smith said that month makes sense, well after the holidays and presumably after most of the winter weather, but before the chores in the winery and vineyard get too numerous.

“We might bring on another event in the year,” Smith wrote in an e-mail, “but Tour de Tanks will stay in March.”

So what sells you on a wine?

At some point I need to track down Eric Asimov to talk about many of the subjects he wrote about in this Wednesday New York Times piece. It hits so many of the subjects I want to cover with this blog: feeling comfortable about choosing wine, taking the winespeak and tasting ratings with a grain of salt and realizing that part of the fun, at least for me, is finding the bargains. And, of course, learning more about how the winemakers and winery owners view what they do.

For someone like me still trying to develop even a decent nose for wine, this graph from the story made me laugh:
Meanwhile, consumers face an impenetrable swamp of winespeak: Wine Spectator recently evaluated one Argentine red as, “Dark and rich, with lots of fig bread, mocha, ganache, prune and loam notes. Stays fine-grained on the finish, with lingering sage and toast hints.”

I'm not embarrassed to admit I'm OK on recognizing the dark and rich. Still working on decipering the loam notes and fig bread and most other things beyond the grapefruit/tropical fruit in Pinot Grigio and the crispness of a Sauvignon Blanc. If are of you reading this can identify loam notes and fig bread before I do, please check in. Otherwise, just enjoy the experience and the many wines that go so well with the dawning of summer.

Closing in on opening day

OK, I admit it. I'm jealous. I got to talk to someone who is on the doorstep of opening a winery at a spot west of Gettysburg in less than two months. And, actually, he sounded eager for July 1 to get here so he and his family can open the doors at Hauser Estate Winery. His will be one of at least a half-dozen wineries opening in the state this year.

Tossing out a few Pennsylvania numbers

According to wineinstitute.org, there were almost 6,000 wineries -- what they refer to as bonded winery premises -- across the United States in 2007. Bonded winery licenses are issued by U.S. Tax and Trade Bureau for the purpose of designating a tax-paid environment for wine. More than half (2,687) are located in California.

That number dwarfs what Pennsylvania lists in the same year (114). Still, it’s not so much that bottom line that reflects what’s going on in this state and elsewhere along the East Coast; a better indicator is the total number of wineries that existed, say, 26 years ago when there were 29. There were only 46 some 10 years later, and still only 64 at the turn of this century. But since then the state has seen 50 more wineries open, and that number figures to increase at a similar rate over the coming decade. OK, that doesn’t mean they’ll be filming the sequel to “Sideways” here anytime soon, but it’s definitely progress.

“Looking back to 1997, there were 53 wineries,” said Jennifer Eckinger, of the Pennsylvania Winery Association, noting the momentum, “and they were producing around 423,000 gallons. In 2007 we had 114 wineries, but now we currently have 122.. So thinking about the year there’s already been a jump. And the total production for 2007 increased to just shy of 1 million gallons.”

Where’s this surge coming from? Popularity and the awareness that this soil and topography can support grapes albeit the limitations that growers are faced with in certain pockets of the state. In the town of Northeast in the northwest part of the state near Erie, Eckinger points out, “that’s always been a grape-growing area. But it’s [happening] increasingly moreso across the state. Even in some relatively inhospitable areas, they’re growing the Minnesota variety of grape. And the grape industry is flourishing, Id say, in the eastern part of the state.”

Courtesy of Eckinger, here are some numbers that might surprise you on the state of winemaking in this state. Tomorrow we’ll put a face to these numbers by talking to the owner of a winery that’s yet to open. Jon Patrono will open his Hauser Estate Winery west of Gettysburg, and he shares some of the steps he and his family have had to take to advance within two months of opening for business.

These include, from left, the year and number of wineries, the total production, the total gallons sold, the sales to the PLCB and the sales on premises.

Year--No.--Prod.--Gallons--Sales/LCB--Sales/prem.
1981---27---254,724---181,181---5,960---165,524
1986---54---329,852---307,969---1,189---289,068
1991---50---312,009---293,121---8,231---259,831
1996---52---416,329---375,011---25,296--301,973
2001---72---598,327---481,737---32,961--430,119
2005--104--810,777---687,214---74,865---586,998
2006--108--780,155---723,032---82,021----620,649
2007--114--919,936---750,694---82,059----649,945

My thanks to Saint Carl

Those working the wineries are busy pretty much year-round, but beginning in April things get particularly busy. So I'm especially grateful to Carl Helrich, who along with Kris Miller, his wife, have been directing Allegro Vineyards since 2000. It's a winery with deep roots, so to speak, with most of the vines dating back to 1973, according to the Allegro Web site. They grow six varieties of grapes over five acres in southern York County; you can find their dot on the map by a town called The Brogue.

Carl was kind enough to be a guinea pig for this first of what hopefully will be many podcasts. Any problems with the quality of the tape is my fault; ahhh, started with the wrong equipment and then slogged through the learning process of saving and uploading files. Still, it's a good first try, as Helrich answers a few questions about the pace at the vineyards this time of year and other related issues. He also sent these photos from his archives that show the beginning of the new growth on the vines, the most vivid message of all that it's time to get back to work.

Live and learn,
Paul

Maryland's growth: more spurt than squirt

Kevin Atticks, the executive director of the Maryland Wineries Association, and Jennifer Eckinger, who manages the Pennsylvania Winery Association, have been extremely helpful to me in trying to launch this site.

I talked to both a couple of days ago about the growth that both states are experiencing, which seemed like a good place to begin this idea of covering regional wine as a beat. What follows below is the interview with Atticks, and the one with Eckinger will run in a day or two. Once I get a few technical issues resolved, I’d like to finally post a podcast I did with Carl Helrich of Allegro Vineyards in The Brogue, Pa. Carl, hang in there. Haven’t forgotten you. Never thought the simple task of moving an audio file to blogger would knock me down for the count, but it did. I’m back on my feet. Hope to have it posted by Tuesday, May 6, and then move this into more of a daily posting.
Cheers.



Own a bottle yet from Cascia Vineyards? How about Galloping Goose or Running Hare or Serpent Ridge? Didn’t think so.

These are four of the eight Maryland wineries – the other four are Knob Hall and Cassinelli Vineyards and Perigeux and Heimbuch Estate Vineyards & Winery – expected to open at some point this year. And there will be more to come, based on everything executive director Kevin Atticks is seeing.

“It was pretty stagnant until 1998, ‘99,” Atticks said by phone the other day. But in the eight, nine years since then, “we have more than tripled. And we see that continuing because there’s just a bigger interest in wine. I’ve talked to three people today who are starting vineyards-slash-wineries who I didn’t know of yesterday. Now they could be five years out, six years out. But there are multiple people a week that I talk to about legitimate start-up.”

This passion for wine and winemaking is one of the reasons this blog makes sense now. This area of southern Pennsylvania and Maryland remains an adolescent in terms of growing grapes, certainly young when compared nationally to the more established states such as California, New York and Virginia, among others. It’s safe to say that many wine drinkers are oblivious to the wineries that exist in their state; in fact, even those aware of the growth are most likely unfamiliar with how many are out there. It was the Uncork York tour last year, which took my wife and I to 11 wineries from the Susquehanna River west to Gettysburg and north to Harrisburg, that provided the seed for this idea.

Atticks said right now there are 33 wineries across his state. “That’s licensed wineries that are making wine,” he said. “I expect to have 37 or 38 by the end of this year…. these are big jumps for a state our size.”

That increase, he expects, will continue at around a 20 percent pace for the next five or 10 years.

Now, not everyone who calls the Maryland and Pennsylvania wine associations will be churning out Chambourcin or Vidal Blanc by 2015. Some might never get beyond dreaming about it.

“They may never have the land,” Atticks said. “They may go away, which is what, think, most people do. It’s romantic . . .then they start seeing what it really means. It’s a lot of work.”

Because of the time at takes to move that dream along to a working vineyard, the more accurate numbers in assessing state growth are tied to sales.

“If I look at what the fed tells me is the number of wineries in the state,” Atticks said, “they tell me there are 49 wineries in Maryland. And that’s not true. What they are looking at is how many people have received their federal license to manufacture and they may not make themselves known to me until they are two years out, which could be three years from now. So we always go by gallons sold, because, practically speaking, that’s what’s on the ground.”

While that footprint has expanded to southern Maryland and the Eastern Shore over the last 10 years, Atticks said the biggest growth area heading past 2015 likely will occur in the Piedmont. “You have this region between Baltimore and western Maryland … kind of north of 95, [where] you’ve got the hills,” he said. “It’s just a great place to grow grapes. From Baltimore, out toward Frederick, and past Hagerstown out west. It’s going to be the best growing area. Excellent.”