Two very different award-winning Rieslings are being sold at Boordy Vineyards

As Maryland wineries await word on the results of the 2009 Governor’s Cup, it seemed like the appropriate time to check in with owner Rob Deford at Boordy Vineyards in northeastern Baltimore County to talk about his two top finishers in the recent 2009 Winemasters Choice Awards competition.

His 2007 Riesling won a best of class in the off-dry division and his 2008 Riesling was among the gold medal winners. Two wines with the same word in the name and grape in the bottle, but two made distinctly different. Both are available for sale at the winery.

That 2007 vintage is called Eisling, what the winery calls its sweet Riesling reserve.
It’s described as “the nectar of Riesling grapes with aromas of honeysuckle and ripe melon. Seductively sweet and full bodied. The crowning touch to a gourmet meal.”

By phone the other day, Deford called is a “faux ice wine that we make where we give nature a helping hand by putting the grapes in a walk-in cooler. I would never promote it as a true ice wine. I have huge respect for those. It’s a Riesling-based wine; 100 percent Riesling. We press the juice of and freeze it and thaw only the first third to 40 percent and ferment that, so you get a nectar in the thawing process.”

That leads to a wine with 11 percent sugar and 10 percent alcohol and very high acidity, “so it’s actually remarkably in balance so it doesn’t feel cloying but it’s definitely a dessert wine.”

The other is what Deford called ”a straight Riesling. The standard Riesling is a classically cold fermented Riesling . . . with just wonderful Riesling characteristics. I love the Riesling grape. I might have told you before that we tried growing it for 18 years. These are not wines made from our fruit, we import the fruit."

Deford called that attempt at nurturing the grape a fairly honest try that just never had a chance of succeeding. "Riesling needs to be grown in a place where the graph of sunlight is very, very different, the northern latitudes."

Still, that hasn't stopped them from importing it. “I love the wine,” he said, “and enjoy working with it. Unfortunately, we can’t grow it.”

Three other quick mentions. What the Hydes, Md. winery terms its sustainable Happy Hour will continue on Thursdays from 4 to 8 p.m. through Sept. 10; the last of its Saturday night concerts series (from 5:45 to 9:45) will be tonight and next week, Sept. 5; and its Autumn Wine Fest will run during Sundays in October. For more, click on this link.

Manatawny Creek's cherry wine back on shelf

The cherry wine is back in stock again at Manatawny Creek in Douglassville, Pa. Winemaker and owner Joanne Levengood sent out an e-blast Friday announcing that the wine, a semi-sweet fruit wine made with sour cherries, is back in stock. Hours are Monday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday from noon to 6. And if you've never been there, go, just to taste what's a delicious line of wines at one of the few wineries left in the region that doesn't charge for tastings. The winery number is 610.689.9804.

Brown's Orchards set to open winery

It sounds like York County's next winery is about to open.

What will be called Logan's View Winery should be opening in the next few weeks at Brown's Orchards & Farm Market in Loganville, Pa. According to a story on the farm market Web site from earlier this year, the tasting room and winery would be located on Yellow Church Road, just a few miles west of the highly successful market that pulls in customers from all over southern York County and Maryland.

That story also noted that seven acres of grapes were planted on Brown’s farm, just a half mile from the market, in April 2008. The winery was expected to begin by selling fruit wines and white varietals at Brown’s Farm Market in 2009, with red varietals to become available during the fall of 2010.

There's a pretty good chance that the UnCork York Wine Trail's next member will be this winery that opens near the farm market. Tamanend Winery in Lancaster recently became the 13th member of the wine trail.

Md. e-letter features winemaking school

Quick note on a winemaking school featured in the last Association of Maryland Wineries newsletter. Tin Lizzie Wineworks is located in Howard County and run by Dave Zuchero, who earned his degree in Microbiology from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and then continued his studies at UC-Davis, where he was a member of the first graduating winemaking class.

“After gaining all of this winemaking knowledge, I wanted to bring it to Maryland,” Zuchero said. "There are other winemaking schools on the east coast, but it is still a relatively new concept here.”

Just click here to read the rest.

Expecting results of the 2009 Maryland Governor's Cup any time. And when I see them, you'll see them.

Waltz Vineyards looking forward to excellent yield as vineyard manages to evade severe storms

The next five weeks holds the key to the quality of the 2009 vintage. A dry, warm September and all that rain from the spring and summer becomes a distant memory. Well, except for all the aches and pains that still linger from the extra work that the rain necessitates.

One winemaker who says he's been fortunate enough to dodge most of the intense storms is Jan Waltz, at Waltz Vineyards in Manheim, Pa., a new winery and already one of my favorites. They've built a lovely tasting room and the wines (from the Chardonnay through their signature Merlot to their high-end Cabernet Sauvignon) are all worth a taste.

Stopped Monday to grab a bottle for a shoot we're planning at the Harrisburg Patriot-News, and while there had a chance to barrel taste the 2008 Merlot and 2008 Cab. Both are rounding nicely into shape.

Waltz said that even a rainstorm last Friday that dumped more than 2 inches of rain didn't set back the vineyard because it had enough dryness to absorb what fell. "We could see it all [heavier rain and haul that fell in Lancaster and surrounding communities] from here, but we missed it," he said. "The rain either follows the valley or follows the mountain, so most of the time it goes around us. We're on track for a good year."

Waltz said he expects an exceptional yield out of his Cabernet Sauvignon. "I think this is going to be a great Cab year, because [it's] further ahead than what we normally are."

Business, he said, has been picking up steadily since the spring opening, even on Thursdays and Fridays. The tasting room is open noon to 5 p.m. those two days and Saturdays. To handle the crowds and the parties, they've added a hire, and could add another once they expand their hours to Wednesday and perhaps Tuesday. They are planning to be open holidays, including Labor Day in another couple of weeks.

Though not part of a wine trail per se, Waltz said he's seeing visitors who are making up their own wine trail, doing a circuit that includes Nissley, Tamanend and Mt. Hope along with Waltz Vineyards. And other wineries in the Harrisburg area and north and east along the Berks County Wine Trail are within an hour's drive.

Paradocx teaming with Schmidt's Tree Farm to put on wine, harvest festival into November

Don't have the time to put together the extensive events list that I once did, and frankly I'd like to get away from targeting the events too much and just concentrate on the wine. Still, as I see these releases move, I don't mind posting them and giving them some additional exposure.

This one comes from Paradocx Vineyard, a member of the Brandywine Valley Wine Trail, and Schmidts’ Tree Farm, which are teaming this fall to offer the public an “A-MAIZE-ing Wine & Harvest Adventure.” It's what they are calling a one-of-a-kind opportunity to enjoy a fun-filled, memorable outing with friends and family, all while supporting local agriculture.

Every Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 29 through Nov. 1, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., the two parties will put on an array of activities on Paradocx Vineyard’s 100-acre farm in Landenberg, Pa., featuring 15 varieties of premium estate grown wine available for purchase by the glass or bottle, a five-acre corn maze, a “pick-your-own pumpkin patch,” hayrides through the vineyard, a pedal car track, children’s wagon train, reindeer antler toss, pumpkin sling shot and pumpkin bowling. On select weekends throughout the fall, the releases adds, guests can enjoy live music and food from local caterers.

Admission fee is $10. No admission fee for children under 3 years of age. Pumpkins are sold by weight. Wine tastings and wine by the glass can be purchased for $7.

For more, call 610.274.8560 or e-mail kellie@paradocx.com. Paradocx's signature in terms of publicity has been its two wines in a decorated "paint can," the equivalent of four bottles of wine. Barn Red and Pail Pink each go for $40.99.

Finally, I'm starting to see more wineries take a shot at producing a periodic blog like this one on the Paradocx site. With their time stretched and frayed, winemakers and staff usually have these on the bottom of their list. But with marketing taking a number of forms these days, even a blog that comes out once in awhile can serve a winery well.

New head of Pa. wine association, like many others, awaiting passage of state budget

Sam Landis is a 1998 bachelor of arts graduate of Williams College who rejoined the family business at Vynecrest Vineyards & Winery in 2002 after working in California for E&J Gallo. Sam assists his parents (Jan and John) in the winemaking, is involved in promotion and as of April became the president of the Pennsylvania Wine Association, stepping in for Bob Mazza. It's a two-year term.

Spoke with Sam by phone last week and have been remiss in not getting the interview transcribed and up on line. I ask him to name a couple of his initiatives, and not surprisingly the first one was connected to the budget impasse in Harrisburg.

"We got a line item of $240,000 last year, which is more than we’ve ever had in the past," he said, "and we were able to do a lot of initiatives with marketing that we’ve never done before. Also, with getting some help politically with some consultants in Harrisburg . . . so we’re now pushing to hopefully get that reinstated. Right now, the budget has been zeroed out with any sort of dollars toward the wine industry, so we’re pushing hard to keep fighting to get those dollars for us. It may not be the full 240 we got last year, but even half [we'd be happy with] just to keep us going. . . . It looks like that’s not going to be settled until September or October, which is the latest we heard. So that’s the big thing right now we’re really focused on . . . is just working funds for us for the next fiscal year."

Landis said the industry recently conducted a state-of-the-union report to, among other things, gather numbers that show how much money you're generating for the state. "We had it done in 2005 and our overall economic impact for the state of Pennsylvania, this was the multiplier effects, was $661 million. We just got the draft done for 2007 and it's $2.35 billion. So it’s a huge increase, and this is something we use as a political tool to go to Harrisburg and say, “I understand you’ve gotta make tough decisions in cutting things right now, but if you look multiplier effects of how many jobs, wages paid, revenue, taxes paid, I mean, we’re paying $252 million in taxes based on how much we wine we sell from a winery standpoint. We’re putting money back into the state with agriculture and tourism, so we’re just looking to use these numbers to show that we’re one of the industries that needs to be backed, even if it's in these hard times."

There's more, which I'll post either later today or on Monday.