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."