Md. wine critic finds a reason to smile

The intent of this site, at least early on, is not to post reviews on various wineries or their wines, particularly locally. There are enough qualified folks doing that. I know what I like and certainly will say so when asked, but the value of this site will be the dialogue it prompts and the folks you get to meet through it.

But that doesn't prohibit me from posting other opinions as long as they are comfortable with having them on a public site. I'd say Doug Marcus of Towson (Md.) Wines & Spirits is very confident in how he feels, and that includes his opinions on Maryland wines. Those opinions were as strong as a bottle of California Zin, pretty much repeated in the June newsletter and e-mail from Doug and wife Marsha. Here's what the e-mail from Towson Wine & Spirits said in regard to Black Ankle Winery of Mt. Airy, Md., which we featured more than a week ago:

"Hooray!!!!!!!

"Here it is. New wine, new winery and ... get this... it's in Maryland and I'm excited!!!

"Finally, a Maryland Winery that is committed to quality wines and actually delivers.

"Other Maryland wineries are involved in the wine making process but Black Ankle Winery in Mt. Airy is committed to the process and the product.

"(So there is no confusion: In a breakfast of ham and eggs, the chicken is involved but the pig is committed!!)

"I have always been a cheerleader for Maryland wines and nearly always disappointed. I am happy to announce that Black Ankle is as serious about wine as I am.

"Please review the wines herein and order, order,order !

"The wines are wonderful but the quantities are limited.

Also, visit their website and visit their winery as soon as it opens to the public in a few weeks."

Enjoy!

Doug & Marsha Marcus
Towson Wines & Spirits

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Hey, you can't blame the guy for pushing a wine he's now selling (and it's not the only Maryland wine he sells at his cozy store not far from Towson Town Center). But it was the enthusiasm that permeated not only the e-mail but also the intro to the newsletter that caused me to want to post all this. The chatter that led into the reviews of the various Black Ankle wines in the newsletter went as follows:


"Let the word go out from this time and place that a new winery has been established… born of commitment, tempered by dedication and intent on proving that there are drinkable wines can be produced in Maryland. I am thrilled to announce that Black Ankle Winery of Mount Airy has arrived! The newest of the Maryland wineries, Sarah O’Herron and Ed Boyce have committed to the finest of wines produced anywhere!

"Unlike most other local wineries that grew from hobbies or insist on making sweet stuff that can barely be called wine, Sarah and Ed have created a fully equipped, professionally developed entirely self sufficient winery that grows its own grapes and makes its own wines. Even to the uninitiated, their effort is evident in their acres and acres of vines, the modern and fully equipped wine making facility and their nearly complete visitor’s center.

"When you visit, think California not Maryland and you’ll understand my appreciation for what they have created. And the wines, oh yes, the wines - these are well made and wonderful – tasting notes follow on all ten of their first born. I am dedicating this entire newsletter to Black Ankle wines, no recipes, no beer and no other wines as I feel their boost to the Maryland wine industry is seismic! All of the wines herein are available now by preorder and very soon (July) on the shelf. Please note the limited case count for each wine and order now!"

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If you want to receive the newsletter or purchase those wines (or others), you can reach Doug or Marsha by calling 410.823.2674 or sending an e-mail to towsonwine@comcast.net.

I asked Doug why he's so vocal on the subject and he responded by e-mail within a couple of hours. If nothing else it's a viable discussion point as we move forward because it's obvious from my conversations with various winery proprietors and wineries that they wrestle with this very subject: sweet vs. dry and how to find the right balance. Sweet often keeps the cash register busy because of the tastes of this region, even if it's not what the winemaker or proprietor particularly like to make.

Marcus wrote in his note to me:

"When Ed and Sarah were starting their project, virtually every MD winery told them - sweet, sweet, sweet. Marylanders only drink sweet wine. My response, after tasting every MD wine, is that sugar covers up a lot of sins.

"(Sounds like nuns discussing how disgusting sex is because they can't have it.)

"Some MD wines are OK, I have an affection for Bert and Lynn Basignani's efforts but I do not believe in movies and brass bands to sell wine.

"My opinions are strong because I believe in the effort and the results. If you cannot make good wine and don't even try - just go home. I sell more wine than anyone in town because I am particular, have a nice average palate and don't really care if I sell wine or not. You never, ever have to take a bottle of wine off of my shelves and ask me if it is any good. It's either good or it doesn't get purchased. We taste as many as 100 a week and approve very few - we neither take prisoners nor play favorites. MD wine doesn't have to be crappy - it just is because it's easier to sell soda pop to the masses for money than good wine to the discerning few. Understand that palates naturally develop and if you cultivate you customers, get them to try other wines ( and stand behind every purchase), their palates expand and so does your business. Coke and Pepsi are not gateway drinks to ginger ale. MD wineries don't get it and never will."

Strong stuff, and a subject we'll continue to explore in the coming months.

Cheers, Paul

Meet Michelle Oakes, Hauser Estate winemaker

Michelle Oakes grew up in Seattle, where she admits she knew little about Eastern wines. But an education at Cornell and several stints at a wine shop and wineries in New York State slowly, well, that love of winemaking grew on her.

Soon she’ll be a walking encyclopedia on at least one Pennsylvania wine: Hauser Estate Winery, located west of Gettysburg. Oakes is the winemaker at the winery owned and soon to be operating by the Jon A. Hauser family. Hauser was president of the Musselman Co. (Apple Processors). He died in 1983, but his legacy continues with funds and land he left.

While the grapes already are planted, the official opening of the tasting room will come sometime next month. That will cap a whirlwind few months for Oakes, who left the Finger Lakes region the first week of March for Gettysburg. It’s an new area for her that she’s been too busy to really explore. Yet.

“We actually didn’t really get started in the winery until April,” she said the other day by phone, “because of . . . getting all of our licensing through and the construction on the building and [figuring out] whether or not things were workable. Actually, we’re still finishing the constructions of the tasting room, but it’s under roof and going to be finished quite soon.” It promises to be one of the lures to the winery. The view, Oakes said, “from all sides, it’s really amazing. They’ve really showcased it well. There’s glass all throughout and they have a green roof that you can look out on, which will be used for events.”

Oakes certainly didn’t see this coming when she headed east to Cornell. Originally settling in with plans to steer her career toward forensic science, she found other interests tug at her. That steered her down a path that included plant biology and a job working in research for the United States Department of Agriculture. It all finally clicked after she spent some time working in a wine shop, and wound up just completing her master’s in horticulture and vineyard management, with a minor in food science/enology/winemaking. During that time she worked for Damiani Wine Cellars, the Thirsty Owl Wine Company – winner of the 2006 New York Governors Cup for its 2006 dry Riesling – and the Hermann J. Wiemer Vineyard.

Asked by e-mail what he liked about Oakes, winery president Jonathan Patrono replied quickly and succinctly. “Her education, her confidence, and recommendations from those she worked with and for [multiple people commented on her palate and how that leads to good winemaking],” he wrote.

Oakes and Hauser Estate will offer a mix of wines when the doors open in July:
a table red, a table white, Chambourcin and Chardonnay, apple wine and 3 hard ciders.

She was articulate and thoughtful during the 15-minute interview, covering a number of subjects. It seemed -- rather than simply post the entire podcast -- wiser to give you snippets of one or two minutes in length to listen to. For those who can’t listen to long bits of audio, these should be more to your liking. The sequence is as follows:

On how she got into winemaking.

On the reds that get her palate juiced.

On a couple of her favorite white grapes.

On sweet wine, which has such a big role in winemaking and sales here.

Wine blending party a hit at Woodhall

Just returned from a wine-blending "party" at Woodhall Winery in Parkton, Md., an event for case club members only. There were several couples that joined us to "experiment" during a session that began at noon and went past 3 p.m. Winemaker Chris Kent (right photo) pulled out vidal, seyval, cayuga and vignoles among the four white wines to blend. Among the reds he brought together were chambourcin, cabernet france, cabernet sauvignon and sangiovese.

Equipping up with a notepad and eyedropper, he told us to smell and taste each of the white and then mix them to our heart's content. And it was fascinating to try different percentages of the various wines and see what we concocted. We were instructed to write down one combo we liked the most, and he sent us home with a 350 ml bottle of red and white with our favorite mixtures (see photo).

Kent's background is as interesting as any of the winemakers that I've interviewed to date. It's rare to find anyone making wine who considered that as their occupation while they were growing up. Kent's the same. His background is in broadcast journalism, and after working for a long time in Louisiana he headed north, where (with plenty of vintages under his belt) he's now a fixture at Woodhall.

The blending party was something that the winery tried back in the mid-1990s, then just dropped, one of those ideas that moved to the back burner. Here's hoping it becomes an annual event at Woodhall and other wineries. It's instructive and fun, particularly sitting out a hot day down in the cellar. One young couple (hi Sara and Mike) talked about their time traveling abroad in Spain and Portugal and Italy. They're headed for South African in December. Another couple (hi Cooley and Kate) talked about the wine they drank during a trip to Australia.

It's a different twist on the many events that wineries hold. This one provided entertainment but also was educational, with a chance to pick the winermaker's brain about everything from blending the wines to the effects that global warming could have on the industry. It was a chance to relax, mingle and learn, and one I'd recommend other wineries trying in one form or fashion.

PLCB trip next week to include 'consultants'

A contingent from the Pennsylvania state stores is leaving town just in time with this heat wave settling in. And while you could call their destination – California – a vacation spot, there will be far more work than play.

Although there’s certainly enough enjoyment in tasting wine for a week.

Three consultants, one representing each of the state’s liquor control board region – east, central and west—will join Tony Jones, the chief of the product management and pricing division, and Jim Short, director of marketing for the LCB, for a trip that should take them through 400 miles and so many California wines that they might lose count by about the fifth day.

Jones and Short make this trip several times a year, since California accounts for 50 percent of the LCB stores' special wine purchases, amounting to about 700,000 cases annually, a spokesman said. But it’s the first time they’ve been accompanied by consultants from several of the state’s premium collection stores. Patti Meckley (my wine guru from the East Market Street store in York) will join Robert Skelly from the Pittsburgh area and Rian Poltrone from the east region, which essentially takes in the area in and around Philly. They head west early Sunday morning.

“The first three days of the trip is going to be buying for our chairman’s collection and premium power purchase programs,” Jones said earlier this week by phone, “and we want those people to sit in on the meetings, observe the buying process that Jim and I go through . . . [and make them] part of the decision making process as well. So they’ll actually sample the wine with us, give us their input, and all that will be considered in the decision process.”
Short noted that in the past the consultants and others have had a chance to sample the wines that Pennsylvania has purchased from California, the state it buys more wine from than any other in the country. Bringing this trio out will, as Short said, incorporate them in the process and then bring back what they learn to share with “their colleagues in other stores with the different regions.”

So how did these three get picked? Jones said, for one, they haven’t been invited on any previous trips.

“They’ve never traveled with us before,” he said. “We just wanted fresh new faces, get them out there. Years ago, the specialty buyers here would take store people out on trips, but that was more as a merit based on the completion of the educational courses [they took as part of the] three-level wine course training. Then their names were drawn out of a hat and there were drawn out for trips. So it was used as an incentive for the educational process.”
In this case, the choice of the three was as much as anything, Jones said, a chance to “rejuvenate the enthusiasm of their career. You know, Patti’s been around like 20 years and the other guys have been around for a number of years. So we kind of want to incorporate them and let them feel a true part of the process and have a thorough understanding so they can go back and spread it among their fellow employees, their associates as well as their customers.”

They will spend the first three days in Napa, welcoming around 25 suppliers that Short said could represent more than 100 wineries. They then will accompany Jones on an intrastate jaunt that will take them to Paso Robles and then to Santa Barbara. On that trip they’ll hit more than 10 wineries.

“It’s the broadest selection and presentation of wine since I’ve been traveling to California on these buying trips back over the last five years,” Short said. Asked what he saw as the most valuable aspect of the trip, Short said he thought that it provided a great opportunity “to have the store buyers get to see the process, see how the deals are structured, to see the detail that we get into. It’s not just about pricing, but we want to make sure there’s a quality level of the wine associated with the deal.” This will show them “an appreciation for what their palate has to offer, show them that we are receptive to their input, plus it really gives them a good understanding of how these deals are put together.”

And, assuming all works well, both Short and Jones said they see this first trip as the beginning of something that will take place again with a different group of employees each time. Would they consider travel to other sites, such as Italy? “I think we’ll do an assessment on the next two California trips before we branch out across the country or [travel internationally],” Short said. “There’s the potential there for that as well."

Drink wine, live longer

Heard this interview on the BBC while driving into work on the health benefits of wine, particularly red wine. In that I'm a glass a day drinker, and this health expert felt that amount could lead to a longer, healthier life, I decided to share it with you.

As with a lot of things, the key word that accompanied the one-glass-a-day regimen was moderation, that too much will produce an altogether different effect.

The event grapevine: June 6-8

FEATURED EVENT

A Day in the Vineyard, Saturday and Sunday
Pinnacle Ridge Winery, 407 Old Route 22, Kutztown, Greenwich Township
www.pinridge.com, 610.756.4481

OK, it’s a full day in the vineyard for the hosts, which includes representatives from Pinnacle Ridge, Clover Hill and Vynecrest wineries. For you, it’s part of the day, with each of the four sessions lasting 90 minutes.
As of tonight, there was one ticket left for the noon Saturday session, about a dozen left for the one at 3 p.m. Saturday and noon Sunday. Around 30 remained for the 3 p.m. Sunday session. Each session will accommodate 120 people.
They are planning to pack plenty into those 90 minutes, according to the host and Pinnacle Ridge owner Brad Knapp.
“It’s the most educational event we do,” Knapp said earlier today. It’s a sit-down hour and a half. People hear from three different winemakers. What we are going to do this year is that each winery is going to present a Riesling, a Vidal and a Chambourcin. They’re going to see dry Rieslings, sweeter Rieslings; they’re going to see different interpretations of Vidal and Chambourcin. So they’re going to get a sense of what the varieties are like and the different ways that winemaking can be used to interpret these varieties.”
This is the sixth time for the event, which rotates among the three wineries. Knapp said the primary difference in the format has been the partnerships with regional food producers. “That has been great actually,” he said. “Premise maid, for instance, which is a chocolatier in our area; we’re working with Mr. Bill’s Poultry, which is an Allentown institution, and we’re doing cheeses from Klein Farms, which is up in Northampton. So that’s been a nice addition in the last few years.”

FESTIVALS
Shippensburg Art & Wine Festival, Saturday only, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., East Street Triangle of the university campus, 717.532.5509.

PENNSYLVANIA WINERIES
Moon Dancer Vineyards & Winery, Wrightsville: music Friday night and Saturday afternoon; Summer Concert series Saturday night ($$), http://www.moondancerwinery.com
Naylor Wine Cellars, Stewartstown: Grape Blossom Wine Festival ($$), Sunday, noon to 6 p.m., http://www.naylorwine.com/
Twin Brook Winery, Gap: Art in the Vineyard, Sunday, noon to 5 p.m., http://www.twinbrookwinery.com/
Chaddsford Winery, Chaddsford: Summer Night Under the Stars ($$), Friday, 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., reservations requested, 610-388-6221; Reserve Tasting ($$), Saturday, sittings at 1, 2:30 and 4 p.m., http://www.chaddsford.com
Crossing Vineyards & Winery, Washington Crossing: Wine Tasting for Dummies ($$), Sunday, 2 p.m., http://www.crossingvineyards.com/
Kreutz Creek Vineyards, West Grove: Summer Outdoor Concert ($$), Saturday, 6 to 9 p.m., http://www.kreutzcreekvineyards.com/
Paradocz Vineyards, Kenneth Square: concert ($$), Saturday, 5 to 9 p.m., http://www.paradocx.com/
Pinnacle Ridge Winery, Kutztown: A Day in the Vineyard ($$), Saturday and Sunday, sessions at noon and 3 p.m. both days, http://www.pinridge.com/

MARYLAND WINERIES
Berrywine Plantations / Linganore Winecellars, Mt. Airy: Fathers Day Weekend, Saturday (10 a.m. to 6 p.m.) and Sunday (noon to 6 p.m.), www.linganorewines.com
Cygnus Wine Cellars, Manchester: Solstice at the Cellar, Saturday and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. both days. www.cygnuswinecellars.com
Woodhall Wine Cellars, Parkton: Rockin’ Summer Concert, Saturday, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.; Case Club Blending Party ($$), Saturday and Sunday, noon to 4 p.m., members only

($$) – Admission charge

Too much rain: Not yet anyway

With another bout of heavy showers moving through today, I sent out e-mails to several wineries asking how they're hanigng in there this spring. Jason Price, of Twin Brook Winery in Gap, Pa., mentioned in Monday's interview that the rain has been excessive this spring. Not destructive, mind you, but a bit more than growers would like to see. Anyway, here's what I heard back.

From Eric Miller, Chaddsford Winery, Chaddsford, Pa.:

"I've just surveyed several vineyards I buy from and feel like the season is in order. There are signs of the late spring frost but only on a few leaves and zero crop damage. Mind you, all the vineyards are on hillsides.

"Things got an early start with some varieties pushing a week or so early but that has all evened out with the cool, dark, wet weather interdispersed with cool low humidity and sun. Typically unpredictable weather for this area (we do a lot of planning before the season begins but that's why we are also soooo reactive) . To make sure we are free of pests and mildew most of us have put at least one more spray on than typical for this time of year.

"With Memorial weekend's wonderful weather, things suddenly began to jump. Thus we are all busy removing suckers, thinning shoots from the crop zone, opening the canopy and managing growth under the trellis and in the alleys. I expect the projected heat next week to promote rapid growth and set us up for leaf pulling and maybe our first hedging of the season in some varieties (Merlot, Chard and Pinot Noir being likely candidates)

"For those who read your blog and are Chaddsford's "frequent buyers" (don't ask me how this occurs in a person's life; ask Lee; I'm just the winegrower) we are having a vineyard picnic on Saturday, June 14, where I'm going to take those interested on a walk thru our Pinot, Cab, Chard, Syrah and Barbera. My plan is to review a bit of last vintage, how we got to where we are this Spring and explain a bit about how things might go this 2008 vintage."

From George Kline, West Hanover Winery, Harrisburg, Pa.:

"Everything is very clean in the vineyard this spring. The only problem I am having this spring is a large amount of winter kill , because of the past three winters. up and down tempatures."

From Brad Knapp, Pinnacle Ridge Winery, Kutztown, Pa.:

The vineyard is exploding, which is normal behavior for this time of year. We started a ahead of schedule due to warm weather in early April but then slowed way down with cooler/wetter weather in May but are now catching back up as things warm up. This time of year is when the crop size is determined by the number of flower clusters that are on the vines coupled with the effectivness of bloom (usually early to mid June). The quality of the crop is largely determined later in the year (late August/September/October).