About 60 sites now selling Black Ankle

A shot of the tasting room at Black Ankle.

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Ed Boyce and Sarah O'Herron saw the opening of their winery delayed by a couple of months, but what a success it was once Black Ankle Winery in Mt. Airy, Md., opened, including the honor of winning the Govenror's Cup for their Crumbling Rock Bordeaux blend.

I sent Boyce a note a couple of days ago asking how things were going, and received this response yesterday.

We have had a nice breather for a couple of weeks after a really hectic Holiday season. Our wines are now sold in about 60 of the finest wine stores and restaurants in Maryland and and DC, and at our production levels that is about all we can handle. All of the wines are doing well, and we are nearly out of our Albarino, Chardonnay, and Gruner Veltliner. Our best selling wine continues to be our Crumbling Rock Bordeaux Blend at $40 a bottle, which in this economy is a real tribute to the quality of the wine. We were named winery of the year by the Cellar Notes radio show out of Baltimore, which was a great compliment in our first year - our challenge now is to live up to the accolades. We'll be bottling the 2007 reds and 2008 whites this April and May, and we are very excited about the wines. 2007 was a warm, dry vintage, yielding reds of extraordinary concentration and weight. The 2008 whites are beautifully balanced wines, with fantastic aromas across all of the varieties (the pink grapefruit on the nose of the Gruner Veltliner is a real standout).

We are planning a few events coming up; first, on Valentines Day (Feb 14th) a wine and chocolate pairing with local artisan chocolates (our Bedlam 2006 with the Aegean Pistachio is heavenly); on March 1st, a wine and cheese pairing with the Wine Coach, Laurie Forster; on March 15th, the return of the Bog Band for St. Patrick's Day weekend; and on April 5th, a pasta and wine pairing. Check the website (www.blackankle.com) for updates.