Let's talk winery real estate

Lynn and Fred Hunter were living in Philly around the time of the bicentennial when they purchased a parcel in York County and planted five acres of grape vines, according to their Seven Valleys Vineyard & Winery site. They spent weekends commuting over to the farm, located in the rolling hills just outside what was then a very rural Shrewbury, to tend to those vines. As someone who commuted daily from York to Philly to work at the Daily News, I know that ride with my eyes closed. Course, when they made the trip, gas was probably around a buck a gallon.

Their first harvest netted about three tons of grapes. For almost two decades they sold their grapes to other wineries, according to their Web site. That changed when the winery was opened in 1994. A member of the Uncork York tour that’s held in March and a member of the currently inactive – but soon to be regenerated – Mason Dixon Wine Trail, they now produce 15 wines. I’ve sampled one at Uncork in 2007, the Chardonnay, one of a mix of dry whites and reds to sweet and dessert wines. All are sold either on the premises or at one of their two stores, along Antique Row in Shrewsbury and also over in Gettysburg.

I’ve not been able to reach them to talk about the 30 years of growing grapes, but I can tell you that the winery has been for sale at an asking price of $3 million, according to the listing. Anyone stopping out to view first will need to sign a confidentiality agreement.

Agent Carolyn Schoettler told me the other day that the winery has been on the market for about a year and a half. She said there has been a great deal of interest, some generated off a site I never knew existed called vinesmart.com, which links to wineries for sale internationally. She noted that the eoncomic market has made prospective buyers a bit hesitant, and also said they backed off the past six onths while pondering an agricultural easement. While the Hunters, she said, are trying to make the purchase as easy as possible, they’re also working outside the home and maintaining the business and its 25 employees. The sale will come when it comes. It’s not just the winery, including the 15 acres of planted grapes. It’s land that also includes the retail store, aging room, tasting room and kitchen. As Schoettler noted, there’s a lot of extras including the 79-plus acres, so that has increased the price.

If you’re interested in just tasting the wine and getting a glimpse of the site, the winery will be open tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday from noon to 5 p.m.

Meanwhile, those in the Brandywine Valley are familiar with Folly Hill, a bed and breakfast and limited winery in Kennett Square, Pa. It’s a former member of that wine trail and has been up for sale at a listing price of $1.25 million at least as far back as last summer. That sale was consummated recently, although listing agent Eliot Dalton said in an e-mail that he wouldn't be able to name the new owners, what they paid, or what their plans are for the buildings and seven acres. It includes a restored 200-year-old home, a stone cottage, a recently renovated bank barn that houses the winery and tasting room, and a large storage barn. A total of 4,000 grapevines cover approximately four acres.

Rule No. 1 as a winery: Do what you're good at

Much of the fun of the blog, done in this format, is initiating the conversation and then allowing the winemaker or proprietor to run with it. A few weeks ago, chatting with Anthony Vietri of Va La Winery in Avondale, Pa., we got on the subject of how all of his wines have nontraditional names and whether that dissuades people from asking for advice because their tack on winemaking is so unique.

“I’m not saying what we do is for everybody or anybody,” he begins slowly, his thoughts then breaking into a sprint. “It’s literally like if somebody comes to our vineyard and they look at our spacing. I say to them, right to their face, there’s the fence. If I were to own the property on the other side of that fence, the spacing would be different, so it’s basically a matter that you gotta do what works for your spot. That has to do with the varieties, too. You know, we’re very very, very, very, very small, I’m not good at the big things, my family’s not. We’re good at the little things. We like to do that. We like to get to know people. We like to do it that way, but there are other people that are good at completely different things than we are.

“I don’t really like hearing all that dogma we hear in our industry, that, you know, like, ah, well, you should be growing this and you should be doing that. It’s really up to the individuals, you know. If someone wants to grow the best Chambourcin there is, then that’s what they should be doing. That’s what its all about, it’s what feeds your soul. You shouldn’t be going around saying, ‘Oh, so and so is growing this, so I want to try that.’ It doesn’t really work that way. It’s like when people ask me varieties, I’m like, seriously, don’t even waste time on it.

“It’s really about the kind of wine you want to make, then the ingredients to that wine will fall in place,” he continues. “But if you go the other way around, you’re just kind of just chasing your tail. First things first [ask] what do we want to do here, what kind of winery do we want to do? If you’re . . . Chaddsford, then it makes complete sense to have the varieties that people recognize right away [because of their size and scope]. So it would be crazy not to.”

The representatives from the six -- soon to be seven -- members of the Brandywine Valley Wine Trail get together minimum of once a month, says president Vietri. “The meetings that I run are five and six hours long and we spend [that much time] because we all work so hard we never see each other. I know there’s others that get together and I admire that, but its just not something that I can do, but when we do the mettings, that's why the meetings are so long. We really enjoy being together, it's a good time to get work done, [but] we also get to catch up with each other’s families and what’s going on.”

Lehigh Valley book: A recipe for success

Jan Landis says there are a number of reasons the Wine Trail of Lehigh Valley’s cook book has been a big success. There’s the second printing of another 1,000 after the first 1,500 sold out. And the fact the proceeds go back into the wine trail and aid in the fight against breast cancer. And the many compliments from those who have paged through the book with its hard cover and spiral binding and lauded one of the recipes. “It’s very gratifying,” says the co-owner of Vynecrest Vineyards & Winery, taking some time out yesterday to chat. “People will come in and say, ‘I tried that meatball recipe of yours and I really loved that,’ or ‘I tried your chile recipe; it was great. To have people share these with people . . . I think we’re the only wine trail to have done a cookbook.”

But the best reason could be the fact that no one has yet reported a recipe with any noticeable flaw. “We used just under 200 recipes,” says Landis, who served as the trail’s editor of the book, “and, this will sound funny, but the thing I’m most proud of is that not one person has come back and said, ‘I tried that and I think you’re off on an ingredient,’ which is phenomenal for a cookbook.”

The cookbook sells for $11.99 and available at all nine wineries of the Lehigh Valley trail. The original lot was printed with grant money from the state Department of Agriculture. Created as part of the trail’s 10th anniversary last year, Landis said they already have gone through most of the second printing. It came about after years of these wineries using a number of these recipes for the annual March Madness Passport program. “We do a food pairing every weekend, all nine of us, and instead of just saying I think I’ll make roast almonds, we actually try and pair something with a particular wine, especially if we have a new release or something like that.

“So we always been very food and wine conscious, and so what we did was, I asked each winery to send 20 of their recipes, a lot of which we have used for march madness in the past, and a lot of time they are recipes for a big group, so we had to modify and bring them down for a small crowd, edit them down to put them in the cookbook. And they were in all different categories.”

That includes everything from appetizers to salads, soups to entrees, desserts to drinks.
“And we use each winery as a divider page,” says Landis, “so one would be appetizers, let’s say, and we have a nice picture of the winery and then a little write-up about that particular winery. And in the back we [include something on] wine and cheese pairings, PA preferred products, what PA preferred means, a little segment on Chambourcin, which we’be kind of adopted as the grape of the Lehigh valley, and in the recipes themselves we also, in the introduction of a lot of them, we give little anecdotes, you know, this was used during March Madness or worked well with this particular wine or something like that.. So it’s a very homey, it’s not just a collection of recipes. There’s a lot of homey touches. It’s a nice kind of story of the whole wine trail and it’s a quite handsome book.”

Landis says that anyone wandering along the trail during March Madness will see some of those recipes being put to use at the various wineries. Someday, she says, she’d like to take them to a bigger stage and provide even more exposure.

“I’d love to have a table a the Farm Show,” she says. “We’re talked about it. “Have some cooking demonstrations at the Farm Show or at least have the cookbook there. I think that would be really neat.”

Reading Asher, and appreciating terroir

I prefer these posts be interviews, but once in awhile I like to stray off the beaten path. My daughter gave me a book by Gerald Asher, the wine editor for Gourmet magazine for more than 30 years. Called The Pleasures of Wine, it's a collection of essays by a writer whose command of the language is as rich as many of the wines he savors. Definitely worth having in your wine library, and one that might you send you back to the bookstore or to amazon.com for the two other books he has written.

I thought the quotes he gathered on terroir in the first essay in the book were worth sharing. Painting a picture of the landscape that provides the soil and climate for Corton, located in the heart of Burgandy, he rolls out these thoughts on the influence of terroir.

From Jacques Lardiere, the technical wine director at Louis Jadot:
"To some extent we can impose style on a wine in the cellar, but we can't impose character, and we can't impose quality either. They come with the vine and the terroir. When we try to bring out the expression of a particular climat we must take into account the circumstances of the year and, if necessary, modify accordingly both our expectations and the tecnhiques we apply."

And from Nadine de Nicolay, the manager of the Chandon de Briailles estate:
"A wine's terroir just is. We do nothing to dramatize it, but we do make an effort to protect it. We avoid the use of fertilizers, which encourages the vine to root deeply and draw on all that is there in the soil. The power and length of a wine comes only from the vine. The kind of power that comes from working the skins and the juice in the course of making wine is superficial; it does not give the wine finesse. On the contrary, it usually destroys any it might have had."

Chardonnays run deep at Elk Run

In terms of history, you’d be hard-pressed to find a winery in Maryland with more history than Elk Run in Mt. Airy. It's one of six members of the Frederick Wine Trail. Among the links on their recently redesigned Web site is a timeline that appears under the heading of About Us. In 1980, it became the first all vinifera vineyard in the state. Ten years later it was making news again, working with the Maryland Department of Agriculture to sell both to destinations in Canada and Great Britain.

Sprinkled amid the key dates are references to the winery’s two Chardonnays, including the Liberty Tavern Reserve that is being produced off the original vines that were planted in 1980. The other Chardonnay, called Cold Friday, is using grapes coming off vines planted in 1995. and as you would figure, there’s a distinctness between the two, said winemaker and vineyard manager Fred Wilson.

“The wines are quite different from each other,” he said Sunday, the sounds of bustling and a ringing phone occasionally drowning out the conversation. “There’s more complexity, more depth of flavor . . . a slight mineral type of aspect to the Liberty Tavern. And the other one is more tropical fruit-oriented. We do the same thing to both of them except the the Cold Friday does not go thru malolactic [fermentation], so it turns out a little bit crisper, and that probably influences the oak flavors. Both are in the same aged oak for the same length of time, but the Liberty Tavern seems to accept that much better.”

Wilson said they are producing on the average of 300 cases of the Cold Friday and 200 cases of the Liberty Tavern Reserve. They also sell around 300 cases of their award-winning ice wine, called Vin de Jus Glace. Theirs has nabbed a pile of awards, including two Maryland Governor’s Cups and a silver medal in this year’s World Wine Championship. It is as the name describes, wine made from grapes that had been left to freeze on the vine. For someone who craves dry wines, even tasting the ice wine seems like a jump into the abyss. But it’s a wine that, as Wilson said, “by its very nature it’s hard to make it unbalanced because by freezing all of the acids . . . it doesn’t turn out to be cloyingly sweet.

“The way we make it . . . we purchase the juice from [New York’s] Finger Lakes and we freeze it, and then separate the ice from the juice. So it kind of doubles the sugar. And then [we] ferment it, so it gets down to about 20 percent sweetness.”

Just as an aside, friends of ours headed up to northern New York for the Niagara Ice Wine Festival, which ran this year from Jan. 18 to Feb. 3. They not only raved about the wines they tasted but the people they met from all over the world.

Elk Run will be closed July 4, but will resume its weekend events on July 11 and July 12. Asked about anything special happening in the vineyard, Wilson noted that they’ve
been experimenting with denser plantings and smaller yields per vine. The result has had some interesting effects on, among other wines, the 2005 Merlot. “It’s quite an interesting difference,” Wilson said. “More concentrated.”

One of the pioneers in the wine industry in Maryland, he can survey the landscape now and see 33 “competitors” trying to make a go of it. There’s growth, he noted, but he remains bearish on what’s ahead because of the current state laws that impact distribution.

“There certainly some minute changes,” he said, “but the legislature . . . does not view winemaking as an industry. So they’re not very open to improving the situations where we can do things that will increase revenue, which of course increases their taxes, but maybe they don’t feel it’s enough to do anything extraordinary for us.”

Doing my part for the economy: buying wine

Haven't seen my buddy Ralph since going into the wine and spirits store more than a month ago, but he walked right up and asked me how I liked that Spanish red he recommended last time. Huh? I didn't remember that, until I got home and typed my new purchases into my wine log and realized that, heyyyyyyyy, he did suggest a red that was de-lish. It's
Mad dogs & Englishmen, a blend of Monastrell, Cab Sauv and Shiraz that's made out of a winery in the Jumilla region of Spain. The alcohol content (14 percent) was a bit higher than many of my Spanish favorites, but it's still nowhere near the vicinity of, say, a Zinfandel. It was really good, as was a bottle of Pillar Box Red from Australia that neatly blends Shiraz (53 percent), Cab and Merlot.

Anyway, Ralph, your memory is better than mine. Definitely a good recommendation.

Obviously I couldn't leave the store this time (or any other) without some bottles in hand. Picked up one bottle of my favorite inexpensive Tempranillo, an '03 Hoya de Cadenas Reserva that I've seen some online reviewers diss for being too shallow, too leathery, too .. oh, who cares? It's one I always enjoy. Also picked up another Spanish red, a Higueruela Cosecha 2005, which is a blend of primarily Garancha. Opened it last night and ... oh my, this one needs to go back even with legs that would be comparable to Jessica Simpson's. Supposed to taste blackberry, blackcurrant, raspberry and strawberry. Instead, got gamey and a whiff of manure and olives. Hey, it happens. Hopefully someone at the store will agree. And pilfered from the clearance section was a Greek white called Santorini Argyros Atlantis, which I'm expecting to make today's crab feast sing. Will let you know.

P.S.: Syrah, I'm told, will give off the scent of black olives. Didn't know that. And there's 12 percent syrah that's blended with the Garancha in that Spanish red I tried. But I returned the bottle and brought home another of the same. We'll give it a whirl tonight and see if it was the wine or just my taste buds.

And finally: That new bottle? More like I expected, with the aromas of fruit evident from the moment the cork pops off. That's much better. As for that Greek white, go find a bottle or two. A steal for $6.99.

Trip West gains "biggest purchase ever" for LCB

Another buying trip down; more than 100,000 cases of largely Chairman’s Selection wine on its way to Pennsylvania between now and the end of the year.

Tony Jones, the chief of product management and pricing division for the state’s Liquor Control Board, said by phone earlier this week that it was the largest purchase that he and director of marketing Jim Short have ever made on one of these trips out West. They make two a year: one in June and another one in January.

But it wasn’t the trip per se that made this newsworthy. They were accompanied a couple of weeks ago by consultants from several of the state’s premium collection stores: Patty Meckley (my wine guru from the East Market Street store in York), Robert Skelly from the Pittsburgh area and Rian Poltrone from the east region, basically the area in and around Philly. It’s the first time that they’ve brought along the consultants, and this first trip was so successful that Jones said they’re going to be accompanied by a new group of consultants every time they head to California.

“They were definitely an asset on the trip,” Jones said. “Myself and Jim, we know what sells in stores, but to hear them kind of reinforce that; when we can turn to them and say, ‘Can you sell this?’ and all three nod their heads yes, that instantly certifies what our thoughts are.”

They spent the first three days in Napa, welcoming around 25 suppliers that represented more than 100 wineries. Jones then took them through Paso Robles and Napa and Santa Rita Hills to other wineries. If he’d change anything for next time it might be the route, perhaps setting up shop in Paso Robles and welcoming suppliers before heading to Napa and possibly to Lodi and Monterey. “Down there,” he said of Paso Robles, “we ran across some real good wineries and got a lot of real good insight into that region. So I think there’s a lot of opportunity for us there in the future.

Jones said they tasted wines from just about all the world’s major producers. “I would say about 40 percent of those cases are being ordered now, and then the reminder will be ordered in August, which will put them in stores for the October, November and December holiday season.” He said about 80 percent of the brands are recognizable. “We had a couple of brands that may be a little more obscure.”

Many of those will show up at what are called Chairman’s Selections luncheons for the store specialists in mid-August, one in Harrisburg and another the next day in Philly. “We’ll have about 20 or 30 of the wines and they’ll get to sample them, see what is coming into the stores that can help them with the sell-through. It’s something we always do after every trip.” Jones said the trio who headed to California will be invited. “At these two events, I’m going to ask them to stand up and just share their experience with everybody that’s there. And then that way hopefully their enthusiasm will kind of rub of on everybody else, get people motivated to sell these wines that come in.”

Hopefully no one will ask for every details of the tastings; Jones said they “had to suffer through” about 450 wines to come up with those 162. It gets a little laborious,” he said, the emphasis on “a little.” And his one piece of advice for the next crew that heads out? “You also learn to wear dark shirts when you go on these trips,” he said. “Wine splash back and all that kind of stuff.”