Sale of Tour passes way ahead of 2008

With Tour de Tanks along the Uncork York trail set to begin Saturday, here's an update form Alison Smith of the York County Convention and Visitors Bureau:

"To date the York County CVB has sold 452 tickets online for the '09 Tour de Tanks Event," she wrote earlier today. "Through this date last year we had sold 177 '08 Tour de Tanks tickets. That equates to an increase of 155 percent from 08-09 in online pre-event tickets purchased online.

"Tickets are also on sale at area wineries (those numbers are not reflected in the above totals) and will continue to be available at the wineries and online throughout the month of March.

"Lodging properties have also indicated that packages are booking well this year, won't have hard numbers until end of event. Ticket sales for the NEW winemaker dinners are going well and we expect that to continue as people travel the trail, meet the winemakers and remain thirsty for more!"

Owner at peace with her wine lineup

It was an observation, not a criticism, that a majority of the wines that Peace Valley Winery in Chalfont, Pa., sells run from semi-dry to sweet. And while Susan Gross, the owner of the 25-year-old winery who first planted grapes there in 1968 admitted that she prefers very dry reds, many of her customers prefer the sweet wines.

And there’s nothing at all wrong with that, she said.

“My business partner [Robert Kolmus] likes the Merlot. I prefer the Excalibur [described on her Web site as full bodied, very dry, dark red wne, aged with a complex flavor and excellent with heavy meat dishes, all which sells for $14.49/bottle] and the wine of choice to take out to a BYOB/Italian restaurant is our New Britiain Red, and so it does well for us.

“But we are not snobbish about [carrying the semi-dry, semi-sweet and sweet wines]. When people come in and shyly say they love sweet wines, I say GREAT! Because we do, too, and [we tell them] don’t be intimidated. That’s our philosophy here.

“Dry wines sell very well, but my sweet wines sell very well, also. And we work hard at making very good sweet wines. We’re proud of our wines, and I think too many wineries don’t bother with the sweet wines, just buying cheap juice form brokers and throwing sugar in it and putting it in a bottle. We work hard at making at very good product and it sells well because of that.”

Gross said she originally developed the vineyard as a way to sell grapes to home winemakers. Meanwhile, she was working at a full-time job and, as she said, very happy with the way things were working. When her company moved out of the region in the early 1980s, that vineyard became something else: a lifeline.

“I had a huge vineyard of many different varieties,” she said. “I had enough time to prepare for this changeover, which gave me the opportunity to revamp my vineyard. There were a lot of varieties out there that I like very much that I wanted to keep, and I knew would work well in my selection of wines. Now, I’m a farmer. I wasn’t a wealthy doctor, lawyer, dilettante of some sort who was a wine connoisseur. I was trying to make a living and it means recognizing the fact that most of the people out there like sweet wines. and we make a very fine product.. I drink very dry reds, and some of my reds get a lot of attention, but it’s just part of my lineup as a business person.”

That business continues to thrive despite the recession. “We’ve had the best February we’ve had in along time,” she said. “The economy has never affected us one way or another except last December a year ago, 2007, when they first stated talking about bad news, and we were affected last December and so were a lot of other wineries. But since then people are rolling with the punches and we don’t have a problem.”

Peace Valley is one of eight members of the Bucks County Wine Trail, which will celebrate a Spring Fling on March 14-15. While not ostentatious, the winery’s Web site certainly is informative with a few touches of home that lend some insight into the person who has run this winery for so many years. Note this entry in the newsletter section:

"For newcomers: Moe is our winery cat. He is the sole survivor of a litter of 4 that was born on the back porch in March 2001. The mother cat is feral but stays close to keep an eye on Moe and to share his food. She is addicted to Pounce catnip treats and shows up every day begging for treats. Moe is a fair weather cat and is eager to come in during bad weather. We are hoping that his Mommie Dearest will follow him in some night and stay warm. Maybe I should leave a trail of catnip.”

And the note on the schedule that lists the Christmas Eve hours from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. “Don’t even think of coming in after 4 P.M.!” it says, capped by the exclamation point.

Gross was asked how much of the everyday work was still fun. Dealing with her longtime customers and those strolling through her winery doors for the first time . . . yes, that’s fun. Watching the vineyard blossom and produce its annual yield. There’s plenty of satisfaction there. The rest? “I just finished all the government paperwork,” she said, pausing. “It’s old hat. I want to retire." Anytime soon, she was asked? "As soon as I can get out, although not with the way the economy is now.”

At Elkton shop, 25 Md. wines and counting

Greg Birney said he was 7 when his family opened Cherry Hill Liquors in Elkton, Md. He learned all aspects of the business, from stocking shelves to sweeping the floors. And by the time he graduated high school and took over the shop in 2002, he had a pretty good idea of what he needed to set his store apart. Something unique. A niche product. And carrying Maryland wines turned out to be that element of his inventory that other stores didn't have; today he carries around 150 of them.

I had visited a lot of liquor stores in the area and really nothing to me set them apart,” he said by phone last week. “I'd find the same product sets at each liquor store. So my thinking was, 'What am I going to find, what am I going to do, what kind of services or products can I offer my customers to draw form a larger customer base? Because otherwise it was just going to be a neighborhood shop; not that there was anything wrong with that, but I wanted something more. And that's when I stumbled into [Maryland wines], in early 2003, that's when I started rolling with them. And at that point there were only 12 Maryland wineries, and it was easy. Now there are into the 20s that actually selling to retailers; I believe we're around 25, 26, and I just made contact with another one today [Bordeleau] that I'll probably be picking up later in the week.”

Birney's name came by way of Morris Zwick, owner of nearby Terrapin Station Winery. What prompted the call was a question about how difficult he found it to sell Zwick's wines in a box, a concept foreign to regional wineries but not so much any more nationally or internationally. The winter edition of Pennsyvania Wine & Spirits devoted a story to the subject. Writer Anne Taulane noted that in Pennsylvania over the past 52 weeks, sales of alternative wine boxes (three-liter, one-liter, and 500-milliliter wines) were up 35.9 percent. Zwick packages his product in 1 ½-liter boxes, the equivalent of two bottles of wine.

Boxed wines, Birney said, have kind of a negative connotation in the industry, especially on the retail side of things. “But Morris and Janet [Zwick] have really worked to put quality wines into their final product. One of his goals, and this is something I have to explain to consumers or potential customers of his [is that this] is one of his personal goals, one of their goals at the winery, is to have a lower carbon footprint. So they want to be as environmentally responsible as possible. To answer your question, it's one customer at a time, explaining that concept. Being the closest liquor store to their winery, it's been a lot easier doing that. I don't know how other stores have fared, say 10 or 20 miles from here, because they're not next door. But a lot of people have seen the winery, seen the grapes go in and wanna try it, and they're very curious, and generally speaking there are a lot of repeat customers on it.”

He charges $22 per box for the wines, explaining that it's in line with other wineries “when you break it down because you have two bottles in each box. When you break it down,” Birney said, “and explain to a consumer that, hey, there's a liter and a half of wine in there, that means it's comparable pricewise to $11 or $12 a bottle. And when you explain that, they're more agreeable to it.”

The two questions most often posed? Birney said one is why Terrapin Station has decided to package their wines in a box. And the second has to do with the names of the wines -- Vidal Blanc, Traminette, Cecil Red, Cecil White. It's a similar situation, though not quite as extreme, to the names that Anthony Vietri uses for his Va La Vineyards wines in Avon Grove, Pa. “They don't recognize Vidal Blanc; they recognize Chardonnay,” Birney said. “It's explaining to a customer what Vidal Blanc is, explaining how it tastes, that's kind of a secondary questions is what is this grape.”

It's that willingness to answer questions and sell the product that ranks Birney's liquor shop high on Zwick's list of favorites from among the more than 40 outlets that carry his product. For now, that's the only way you can buy Terrapin Station Wines, although Zwick said last week that they are planning to erect a tent by the winery for a couple of months this summer and, besides selling it, allow customers to taste some of them. While that happens, he said, he'll evaluate what shops his wines are going into now and how they're doing.

“We’re probably going to have to ruminate on the mix of stores that we have,” Zwick said. “Some do pretty well in terms of moving product and others don’t. It's just a matter if you’re a small winery producing local product, you’re generally going to be attracting people interested in wine to begin with beyond getting bulk 1 ½ liters bottles of wine from California or something. So some stores, they just don't push much premium wine and, of course, right now, in particular. And so when we're placed in a store where they're moving a lot of lower-priced, lower-value wines and beers, that's just not a successful place for us to be. So we'll keep evaluating our mix of stores.”

Stargazers adding warmth to the old pad

When the Brandywine Valley Wine Trail begins welcoming guests for the 2009 Barrels on the Brandywine next Sunday, Stargazers Vineyard will be one of two new members pouring wines. As noted on the Web site, the winery is located just north of Unionville, Chester County, not far from the "Stargazers Stone," which marks the location of the observatory Mason and Dixon used in surveying the border between Pennsylvania and Maryland. According to the site, they were known as "the stargazers" because they used celestial navigation to correct their measurements over the ground.

It’s a vineyard and winery that has been owned and operated for years by Alice and John Weygandt, who are just beginning a succession plan that will turn over full operation to Jennifer and Brian Dickerson.

Reached by phone the other day, Brian said this phasing in of the new owners could take three to five years. “We want it to be [that length of time] so I can get as much knowledge with them around as possible instead of just saying, ‘Here ya go, have fun.’ We want it to be a smooth transition, not just for the entities involved but for the business itself, the winemaking and the wingrowing.”

Brian said they should soon complete work on enclosing a patio overlooking the Brandywine River and valley that to this point has had a roof over it but was open on three sides and connected to the winery on the fourth. Not that it will change what Brian called “probably the best view in Chester County as far as the wineries go,” but it will turn that spot into a 12-month-a-year site that can be heated during the winter and open for breezes during the summer. “We’ve framed it in and put in very large glass overhead doors so when we have inclement weather, like in March, they’re going to be closed and [it will be] warm and toasty,” he said.

They plan to be pouring eight wines during Barrels: two of their sparkling wines, their oaked and unoaked Chardonnays, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Pinot Noir and Dornfelder. Care to taste? They provide two wines from the barrel: their 2008 Chardonnay and their 2007 Cabernet Reserve.

Blog roll please: Adding McDuff's to list

A newspaper lifer, I've gotten used to touting my section and my writers over whoever the competition might be. But it's different in the blog world, where those who share an interest enjoy sharing that interest so much that they provide links to others writing about the same thing. My humble list includes about a dozen favorite site, including McDuff's Food & Wine Trail, which I just added to my blog roll on Friday.

Check out the list of favorites on his almost two-year-old blog and it includes a who's who of Philadelphia area aficionados of wines and/or food. Now that's what I call a service, introducing readers of one blog to so many others who cover various aspects of the same geographical region. In addition, his list adds a dash on national and a pinch of musical. Overall, it's another one you're worth acquainting yourself with, especially if you live somewhere around Philly.

David, sorry it has taken two years to get acquainted. Still, welcome aboard.

Crossing going green on 3,000-sq.-foot addition

Click on the attachment at right for a peek at Crossing Vineyards' calendar of events.


Christine Carroll, the director of marketing and public relations at Crossing Vineyards and Winery in Washington Crossing, Pa., has among the four most extensive events calendars in the region and lots of other initiatives in motion at their expanding operation. Few wineries market and publicize what they do as well as this place.

Indeed, they tout on their home page they the winery was listed No. 3 on a top 10 list of up-and-coming wine producers that appeared in the 2009 edition of Tom Stevenson's Annual Wine Report, an international guide to the wines of the world. Crossing held the No. 5 spot in that publication in 2008.

Carroll wrote in an e-mail she sent yesterday that the winery continues its green initative with the construction of an energy-efficient, 3,000-square-foot addition there.

She continued: "Crossing Vineyards broke ground in December, 2008, for the construction of a 3000 square foot addition to its winery. In keeping with the company's "green focus," the new building is designed to accommodate the future installation of solar panels and will feature a high-efficiency geothermal heating and cooling system. It will also include a water recharging well that collects and recyles groundwater instead of allowing erosive runoff.

"The new building will allow Crossing to serve customers better, while conserving natural resources, protecting the environment and reducing the company's carbon footprint.

"We also have a great spring schedule of classes, workshops, music and food events. One of the offerings I am most proud of is our Wine 101 class. It is a six-week course that goes from how wine is made to food and wine pairing. It is offered on Monday nights at 6:30 p.m. beginning on March 23.

"We have also had a great response to the Pairing Wine and Cheese class. This is not an uncomplicated subject and not many people know enough about it to offer classes. We have gotten a lot more knowledgeable since the opening of our Wine and Cheese Shop at The Mohegan Sun Casino; so we are in a position to offer a quality class."

Terrapin posts tasting schedule for next 5 weeks

Cecil County, Md.'s Terrapin Station Winery punched out an e-letter early last evening that contained a list of scheduled tasting "off-site" and a plea for readers to support the shipping bill now in discussion in the Maryland legislature.

First, the tasting schedule:

Fri, Feb 27, 4-7: Finksburg Liquors, Finksburg
Sat, Feb. 28, 1-5: Johnston's Liquors, Rising Sun
Sat, Mar 14, 3-6: Hillcrest Liquors, Frederick
Fri, Mar 20, 4-7: Crossroads Liquors, Westminster
Fri, Mar 27, 4-7: Mt. Airy Liquors, Mt. Airy
Sat, Mar 28, 12-3: Love Point Deli, Stevensville
Fri, Apr 3, 4:30-7:30: Upcounty Fine Wine, Clarksburg
Sat, Apr 4, 1-5: House of Liquors, Westminster

And the note on the direct shipping bills:

As many of you know, the wine direct shipping bills are once again being debated in Annapolis this session. House Bill 1262 and Senate Bill 338 are based on the standard language used in 34 other states that enable direct shipment of wine. Opposition from the wholesale lobby is extremely strong, and their voice is loud. But their claims that it promotes underage drinking, promotes tax avoidance, and will lead to all manner of calamities in our state are alarmist and unfounded by evidence in the 34 states that have experienced no difficulties. While Maryland wineries would marginally benefit (we have excellent retailers, but we can't get to every corner of the state), this is NOT a winery bill. This is a consumer bill.

Unfortunately, these bills are discussed before their respective subcommittees during weekdays in Annapolis, when most consumers are busy working their day jobs. We will NEVER be able to get enough consumers in the room to offset the opposition. Your legislators, however, want to hear from you! Over 50% of the house has signed up as co-sponsors and a significant number of senators have as well. We need YOU to tell them how you feel about this legislation. And the best part is that it is VERY easy to do.

Marylanders for Better Beer and Wine Laws and Free The Grapes have set up an automated site that, once you identify where in the state you live, will automatically generate a fax that will be sent to your delegation. It takes less that 5 minutes, but it could make a huge difference in getting this sensible legislation passed.

Just click on this link, and you will be taken to the site.There is so much exciting happening in Maryland wine! Let's see if we can add to the excitement by getting this bill passed. Thanks for your help!