Make way for newest Maryland winery: Galloping Goose to start welcoming visitors in 2 weeks

Some people spend a summers visiting all the baseball stadiums in the country, or all the minor-league parks in their area.

Me? I keep a scorecard that allows me to record how many wineries I can visit in a year, and I see where another one will be put into play later on this month.

Galloping Goose Vineyards in Hampstead, Md., notes on its Web site that it will give visitors a first peek at the premises from noon to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 31, and Sunday, Nov. 1. There will be wine tastings, light fare and winery tours, along with a barrel tasting of wine that will be released next year. Some of you might already have tasted wines from the northern Carroll County producer when you attended the Maryland Wine Festival. And maybe you tasted so many wines that day that they all blended together.

The winery is located on 27 acres of rolling countryside. Directions from I-83 seem simple: Get off at Mt. Carmel Road, then head toward Hampstead. Travel 6 miles to the light at Falls Road. Turn right onto Falls Road and then left onto Brick Store Road. Take that to the second road on the left, which is Maple Grove Road. You'll see the vineyards on the right.

Rose sales 'blooming' nicely at Hauser Estate

Winemaker Michelle Oakes welcomes several visitors to the winery during the 2009 Tour de Tanks in March.

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Wrote a day or two ago about Seattle native and Cornell educated Michelle Oakes, who joined the then soon-to-open Hauser Estate Winery in Pennsylvania's Adams County in the late spring of 2008. That winery is now open and pulling visitors to its hilltop spot overlooking the rolling terrain that borders Gettysburg's Civil War battlefield. If you're visiting Hanover or Gettysburg, or driving through the area on Route 30 or Route 15, it's a stop you need to make.

Oakes was asked if the sales of any one wine that Hauser Estate produces has surprised her.
Yes, she answered, there was one, the Cabernet Franc Rose.

"I guess one I personally wouldn't to be shocked by, but just based on what people usually prefer I'm shocked by, is the sales on the rose," she said. "Rose is a hard sell. It's one of those wines that just based on its repuation is a hard sell. You're dry wine drinkers think blush when they see it and they think it's sweet, and your blush drinkers assume it's going to be sweet as well. So when you put a Rose on the market your blush drinkers get excited about a wine that they're probably not going to care for much and your red wine drinkers don't want to touch it.

"But the rose has been really well received. I think initally it was getting the people to try it, and then the word kind of spread that it's not a blush style; it's actually a fairly heavy rose, it's got a lot of earthiness to it. It was actually on the skins a little bit longer than you usually would do a rose."

Given the winemaker's background in food, the obvious followup was a question about pairing. In her mind, it matches up with almost anything.

"Rose is a great food-pairing wine because you can do it with lighter fare, but if it's a heavier rose it will still hold up to some heavier dishes," she said. "I mean, it comes about perfect when you're thinking things like pork or chicken in a heavier sauce, where you're like, I could go white but if I wanted red, it's a good crossover. I always say rose is a good picnic wine."

Also a good wine for a feast, such as Thanksgiving, where you're likely to see it recomended as one of the perfect wines to place around the food-laden table. Oakes agreed, noting that "it doesn't overshadow your turkey but it holds up to your gravy and your stuffing, all those things."

Wines & Vines updates readers on Md. fight

The head of the organization pushing to allow direct shipping of wine in Maryland noted in a Thursday e-mail that the publication Wines & Vines just published a story documenting the fight. Adam Borden, executive director of Marylanders for Better Beer & Wine Laws, told that magazine that "our goal is to get a majoity of members in both the House and the Senate to co-sponsor the legislation,” Borden said. “We have worked with legislative services to draft our legislation so that when it goes to the committee, the members will debate the merit of the bill, and not become immersed in technicalities.”

The article noted that the showdown will come during the period between Jan. 12 and April 12, covering the 90-day period each winter and early spring that the Maryland General Assembly meets. You've been following this initiative on my blog for almost a year now and read much of what was in the article. Still, here's a link to the Wines & Vines story.

Pennsylvania study: Impact of industry has risen 31 percent over the last three years

What better time than Regional Wine Week for the state of Pennsylvania to tout the findings of a study commissioned by the state's Wine Marketing Research Board (PWMRB), which found that the total impact of the wine industry at ore than $870 million in 2007. That's the last year that data was available.

The last such study was done three years ago, which found an impact of $661 million based on the figures from 2005. This year's results represent a 31 percent increase. Economic impact is measured in total revenue from tourism, wine sales, taxes, and employee wages.

According to a release from the Pennsylvania Winery Association, wine production is also up by more than 13 percent over 2005 totals with 920,000 gallons produced in 2007. That ranks the state seventh among the country's top wine makers. The Commonwealth was previously ranked eighth in wine production.

The study confirmed that Pennsylvania’s wineries are growing in number – from 104 wineries in 2005 to 114 wineries in 2007 – but it also showed an increase in winery output. Although 71 wineries are classified as small, producing less than 5,000 gallons annually, the number of wineries producing 20,000 or more gallons has doubled since 2005 to include 14 wineries throughout the state. Though these larger wineries represent just 12 percent of the Pennsylvania winery industry, their production represents 59 percent of the state’s total wine output.

Here are a few other facts:

* Pennsylvania’s grape juice industry, fueled by the 140-plus vineyards that serve the wine industry, has an impact on the state economy totaling $1.48 billion.

* In 2007, the Pennsylvania wine industry contributed $252.5 million in taxes to the state and collected $179.6 million in tourism expenditures.

* Wine, winegrapes and related industries account for 5,286 jobs in Pennsylvania, with an associated payroll in excess of $210 million.

Tourism and Pennsylvania winery income is expected to rise in 2009 as the PWA continues to work with the Pennsylvania Office of Tourism on a marketing campaign designed to boost tourism to state wineries and wine trails.

I'll add that no one from the association is ready to say just how much the state will fund its planned activities in 2010. That figure is expected to be released in the next few weeks as more becomes known on the specificis of the recently passed state budget.

Serpent Ridge seeks hands to help harvest

A shot of the outside of the tasting room on opening day in April, and one of the bar inside the tasting room with owner Greg and Karen Lambrecht (background) serving up samples.

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Serpent Ridge Vineyards in Westminster, Md., is a case of another recent start-up that has impressed from the get-go. Its Vintners Cabernet won gold at the Indy International and Winemaster Choice competitions and a silver in the state's Governor's Cup competition. A red blend called Basilisk took a gold in the Governor's Cup contest and its Albarino took a silver in the Governor's Cup and a gold in the Winemaster Choice.

All better than you'd expect out of a winery that opened only a few months ago.

Saw where the winery is planning its harvest for Saturday, Oct. 24, and is looking for volunteers. If you are interested in helping, call them at 410.848.6511 to find out more.

It also reports that its first food and wine dinner done in conjunction with L'Ecole Culinaire School of Cooking was so successful that it's already planning another for 6:30 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 13. The cost is $75 /person. Call the above number for reservations for the event, which will be limited to 20 guests. Rumor has it, the latest e-mail said, that the winemaker will be pouring a few samples of the 2008 Cabernet.

What's on the menu? See below.

First Course
Maryland Seafood Chowder with Rockfish, Crab, and Shrimp
Seyval Blanc

Second Course
Onion Pie with Firefly Farms Blue Cheese, Country Ham and Walnuts
Albarino

Third Course
Pan Seared Salmon Medallions with Blended Chicken Liver Sauce
and Braised Collard Green
Basilisk

Fourth Course
Turkey Roulade stuffed with Oyster and Country Sausage Dressing with Sweet
Potato Puree and Giblet Gravy
Grenache Rose

Fifth Course
Chocolate-Ginger Truffle Tart with Pear Caramel Sauce
Vintner’s Cabernet

It's a season of contrasts for winermakes: loads of work blended with a splash of patience

Sneaked in a phoner last Wednesday with the lovely and talented winemaker of Hauser Estate Winery, one of Pennsylvania's start-ups this year. It's a winery with as much upside as the hill it sits on, offering a stunning view of the surrounding countryside that stretches almost to the Civil War battlefield. Michelle Oakes was looking forward to maybe her first day off in three weeks this past Saturday. Hey, it gets that way September through November, so you can't be in the business and gripe about it. "Well, you can complain, but nobody wants to hear it anymore," she said, breaking into a laugh.

Any break she got on the weekend was going to be short-lived, with Merlot grapes arriving Sunday to be processed. Once a field for apples in Adams County, west of Gettysburg, now supports vines bearing, among others, Vidal and Chambourcin grapes. Fall is the transition season for wineries, with juice in the barrels and tanks getting bottled to make room for the new grapes either coming in from the field or other suppliers.

Oakes said she was expecting to do a lot of bottling over the coming week: Pinot, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. "Those will probably sit in the bottle a couple of months before I release them," she said. "I'd like to release them before Christmas," but it depends on how much they settle after undergoing the jarring process of being transferred from where they've been sitting for a good part of the past year.

At the same time she's nurturing the reserve reds that will age some more before seeing the light of day. We tasted several -- the Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet France and Meritage -- when we stopped last March during Tour de Tanks. They were yummy then. So how does Oakes keep from just emptying the barrels and getting those out, too?

She starting laughing. "It's the one thing in the world that I'm patient about," she said. "No one would ever tell you I'm a patient person, but I'm patient with wine. That's about it. I'm sure other people would tell you they wished I were more patient about other things."

It's too crazy now, frankly, to do anything with them, with all the other requirements of the job, including an occasional blog entry on the Hauser Estate site. By January, she said, they'd probably be ready to bottle, with this winery's first full line of reserved wines ready by Tour de Tanks in March 2010 or maybe a few weeks afterward.

So how will she know when they're ready to sell?

"You really don't," she responded. "When I say they'll be released, it me being optimistic." She noted that the Reserve Chardonnay was bottled a month ago and that ideally it would be ready for the holiday season. She related a recent conversation she had with her boss. "My boss was asking me, 'oh, well, we'll have it for Christmas hopefully?' [I said] I want to have it for Thanksgiving, but it all depends on what it does in bottle. I said all I can do is walk by it and inspire it that it wants to be turkey wine, but beyond that I have no control. The power of positive thinking. Some things just react to bottling differently than others and you never really know how it will be, how long it will take to come back together in bottle."

This weekend's activities run gamut from grape stomp to wine trail celebration

This is a busy weekend coming up for winery-based activities in the Pennsylvania-Maryland region. One is what's now become the annual grape stomp down at Sugarloaf Mountain Winery in Dickinson, Md., on the way to Washington D.C. Activities will run Saturday and sunday from noon to 5, with everything from music to tours to tastings and, of course, the stomp, with prizes awarded to the fastest (and most accomplished) on their feet. Love the photo I've attached on here of the toddler in the barrel; borrowed it off their Web site. Online advance tickets are $12; they will be $15 at the gate.

Across the Mason-Dixon Line in Pennsylvania will be the celebration of the harvest on the Lehigh Valley Wine Trail, an event called Chambourcin Weekend. All nine wineries will feature special tastings and food pairings, entertainment, seminars and more. You can hit the trail site for specifics. Expect things to commence Saturday at 10 a.m. and running until 5 p.m., with maybe a little more room to move around on Sunday once the NFL kicks off. Wineries that day are scheduled to be open from noon until 5 o'clock.

Down the road a bit will be the sixth anniversary bash at Crossing Vineyards & Winery. There's a new building dedication on Saturday, in addition to tastings and a birthday drawing that can win you two free tickets to a wine and food dinner on Nov. 14.

These are just a taste of what's going on. You can do a wider search by stopping by the Web sites of the Association of Maryland Wineries or the Pennsylvania Winery Association and clicking on the individual winery sites.