Tamanend's boxed series at 40 pct. of sales

While Terrapin Station in Maryland's Cecil County has gotten most of the love on this blog for its boxed wines, it's not the only winery in the region that has gotten away from the bottle and cork.

Tamanend Winery is in its first year and located in Lancaster, near routes 72 and 741. It's selling its dry wines in a bottle and its sweeter wines, with just a couple of exceptions, in 1.5-liter and 3-liter bag in a box. There are two exceptions to this dry bottle and sweet bag universe: its Port-style and an off-dry Reisling (called Irresistible) that are both bottled.

Co-owner Richard Carey said by phone earlier Tuesday that the boxed wines have been a significant amount of the new winery's business, around 40 percent. They're also applied to the Liquor Control Board to sell the boxed wines in Pennsylvania's state stores. A response to that application is still pending.

At some point, Carey said, they'll look at the numbers entering the winery and make a decision about extending their hours, which run from noon to 5 p.m. on Thursday, Fridays and Saturdays. "This being our first year in this location where we're open to the consuming public, we don't know exactly what this drill is going to be," Carey said, noting that "from a business standpoint we're accelerating rapidly so we know there are thing in store. We just don't know what it is yet."

Off their Web site, it appears they could get help from associations with two trails. They note that they have just become a member of Uncork York, which recently completed a highly successful fourth installment of Tours de Tanks. Members of Uncork run from east of the Susquehanna River to west of Gettysburg. The site also indicated that Carey and partner Linda Jones McKee are working with other wineries in and around Lancaster to form a Red Rose Wine Trail. Details on both no doubt will be forthcoming in the next few months.

No question who buys (and drinks) most wine

Read the most recent post from the blog Good Wine Under $20 and it was a subject -- the gender inbalance of the wine-buying public -- that you probably can relate to. So many couple we'll go out with where the female will almost always order wine and the male will do so only occasionally. Definitely, being a male whose favorite refreshment is wine puts me in the minority. At least I think so. What do you think?

As for nationally known blogger Deb Harkness, who writes out of the West Coast, here's what she thinks.