Maryland group pushing change in state's shipment law toasting several recent successes

I've been on the e-letter list for the group called Marylanders for Better Beer & Wine Laws since January, when I had a chance to interview executive director Adam Borden about his fight to change the state law prohibiting wineries from shipping their product to homes around the country.

Despite a crazy few weeks either testifying or simply arguing his case to anyone within earshot, the bill to overturn that law was rejected. Just like always. But Borden vowed that 2010 would be different, and recent developments would give some prescience to that battle cry, although he's far from overconfident.

Chatting by phone Thursday afternoon with him, Borden said there has been a "huge amount of progress" with the push to pass this bill early next year through Maryland's House and Senate. One shove came from a Sept. 7 editorial in the Baltimore Sun that supported his group's agenda. The headline: Our view: If Maryland wants to grow wineries and accommodate consumers, the state's misguided ban on direct shipment of wine must finally be discarded.

Borden said he heard that the editorial reverberated quite loudly in Maryland's capital of Annapolis as well as elsewhere across the state. "That was really exciting," he said, "and for them to come out tis early with such a long endorsement was really great."

Indeed, not a single opponent would show up to argue their side with Borden on Dan Rodricks' Midday NPR show last week. And then came last weekend at the Maryland Wine Festival in Carroll County, when the group added about 5,000 signatures to a membership that already topped 10,000. The original group totaled around 1,700.

You can read more about the group and their initiative at http://www.mbbwl.org, where you also have the opportunity to contribute to this grassroots effort. In the meantime, Borden noted that the group is planning a fund-raiser called "Drink Local: A MD & VA Wine Seminar & Tasting" on Thursday, Oct. 8, from 6 to 9 p.m. at Whittemore House (near Dupont Circle) in Washington D.C. It will feature three Maryland and three Virginia wineries, with each one serving a red and white wine. Virginia viticulturalist Tony Wolf and Association of Maryland Wineries executive director Kevin Atticks will offer a 45-minute seminar on the terroir in the two state. A seminar on the politics of wine in Maryland and Virginia will wrap up the evening.

"It's a great way to profile the industry and let people be able to taste some of the wines," Borden noted.

As for this final push before action on the legislation starts in January, Borden said the key is maintaining the momentum and "making sure the delegates and the senators know that this is going to be an issue that's going to come up for a vote this year [2010] and we want their vote. That's really it.

"They've always been . . . what's been such an easy way to co-sponsor is a bill when you know it's never going to get out of subcommittee. But as soon as it looks like it's going to get out of subcommittee, they say, 'Oh ----, I actually have to do something about it.' Soooo, they better be doing something about it."

Just call it biggest-ever Md. Wine Festival

That smile on the face of Kevin Atticks, the executive director of the Association of Maryland Wineries, might be fixed there for awhile. You can thank the success of last weekend's Maryland Wine Festival in Westminster for keeping Atticks beaming.

He said Wednesday that attendance Saturday was around 14,500 and Sunday around 7,500, the latter no doubt affected by the second weekend of NFL football. Still, Atticks was chirping in a phone message he left Wednesday morning.

"Weekend was phenomenal," he said. "It was a helluva time. We had about 450 people in our premier tent, who upgraded to taste some of the finer wines. And a new winery made its debut there. Thanksgiving Farm [in Harwood, located 20 miles due east of the nation's capital]. They have a Pomerol style Meritage, a beautiful wine. Couldn't have asked for better weather. It's probably the best weather I've seen at that festival ever."

The next one to follow in the state will be the weekend of Oct. 3-4 in Hollywood in St. Mary's County. Called Riverside Winefest at Sotterley, it will run from noon to 6 both days. You can find out more by clicking on this link or calling 301.373.2280 or 800.681.0850.

Lehigh Valley's Chambourcin Weekend planned for the weekend of Oct. 17-18

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Wanted to mention that the Lehigh Valley Wine Trail’s annual Chambourcin Weekend will be held at all nine wineries on Saturday, Oct. 17, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on the 18th from noon to 5 p.m.

Chambourcin, pronounced Shom-bor-san, produces a dark, intense wine similar to but not quite as heavy or robust as Cabernet, according to a release from the trail. The varietal is often compared to Merlot because of its softness and Shiraz for its spicy characteristics. Chambourcin also has a fair amount of acidity, which makes it a wonderful food wine because it accentuates the flavors of the food. In the Lehigh Valley, there are 36 acres of Chambourcin grown today yielding 93 tons of grapes and producing 14,725 gallons of wine in 18 different styles. The styles include Nouveau, Rose, Sweet Red, Semi Sweet, Dry Oak Aged and Sparkling. The Lehigh Valley's Chambourcin wines have won more than 50 medals in various competitions around the country.

Some events happening along the trail include:

• Amoré Vineyards & Winery will feature four styles of Chambourcin paired with ravioli in a red Chambourcin sauce, Chambourcin Bar-B-Q, and assorted breads with PASTAMORE dipping oils.
• Big Creek Vineyard will be pairing a number of traditional Pennsylvania Dutch Foods from its neighbors at Grouse Hunt Farms with our 2008 Chambourcin. The sampling will include Brandied Peaches, Vanilla Peaches, Brandied Cherries and a few types of fruit butter.
• Blue Mountain Vineyards will offer its 2005 Chambourcin paired with Braised Beef with Tomatoes & Herbs both Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday it will offer a Chambourcin Seminar and Tasting at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. with the winemaker. Saturday it will offer complimentary acoustic entertainment provided by Rob and Marty. On Sunday it will offer our very popular Fall Foliage Wine Tasting featuring Leechboy for an admission of $5. Wine trail customers to the winery are welcome for wine tasting and our pairing at no charge.

• Clover Hill Vineyards & Winery will once again pair up with Chef Nathan Grube to present cooking demonstrations featuring Chambourcin friendly foods on the patio, at 1, 2, 3 or 4 p.m. for a demonstration. The demonstration food will be available for sampling and plates of food will be available for purchase.
• Franklin Hill Vineyards will be featuring its delicious homemade beef stew paired with Chambourcin. Klein's Farms Dairy & Creamery will be joining the folks at Franklin Hill to offer their gourmet handmade cheeses. Fresh apples and apple cider will be available at Kachline's Farms.
• Galen Glen Vineyard & Winery will feature tastings of Chambourcin infused and winery prepared Chili with our Claret, a naughty new world blend of ‘Cin and Franc, or Cellar Red, our unwooded and fruity Chambourcin wine. In addition, you can sample its autumn favorite, mulled Chambourcin.
• Pinnacle Ridge Winery will be releasing its 2007 CHAMBOURCIN RESERVE. Brad Knapp and Co. will be pairing the new vintage with a wonderful selection of smoked meats and cheeses from Dietrich's Meats and Country Store.
• Vynecrest Vineyards & Winery will be serving samples of beef a la Chambourcin, a rich beef and mushroom stew served over noodles (recipes available) paired with its 2007 dry Chambourcin. There will be live music in the Vyneskeller Wine Bar both days 1 to 4:30 p.m.

Report: With higher rain and fewer degree days, harvest promises to be a bumpy ride for vintners

I've been sharing excerpts from the monthly e-letters that Mark Chien, who is Pennsylvania's wine grape educator, sends to his clients and friends. Some of the terminology and subject matter can get more technical than many novices want to or can absorb, but for those like myself who share an interest in all that goes on to produce the wine, it's meaty stuff. Plus it often makes you realize just how many hurdles these folks jump over to turn out each year's vintage.

Mentioned in other recent posts how bad the season has been for most grapes; just too much rain throughout much of the state. And that's what Chien references in one of the items that came via e-mail on Monday.

I've been stuck in the mud as far as posts these past couple weeks. Have three or four interviews to get up, but between work and school and a nasty cold, I'm behind on things. Worst part is trying to stay away from alcohol and, thus, not drinking any wine. Well, maybe the worst part was having tickets to the Maryland Wine Festival in Westminster this past weekend and being too sick to go. Kevin, we'll try again next September.

Anyway, Chien writes:

The weather has improved but by no means is this vintage out of the woods. Dry periods like we are experiencing are great for putting the brakes on disease conditions, if only temporarily and moving the physiology of berry ripeness forward. The conditions of this vintage are pretty much etched in stone and even with good weather we won't make much brix progress. I think the idea now is to push fruit as far as possible to gain flavors, phenolic balance and drop acid, especially in red varieties.

All of your work with disease control, canopy management, crop adjustment, etc are either paying dividends now are maybe indicating what should have been done but if the work isn't done by veraison [Editor's note: the terms for when wine grapes change color], it is mostly too late to catch up. Gazing at fruit chemistry data from our colleagues to the north (statewide NY data in their Veraison to Harvest newsletter) it is pretty certain, as you have surmised by now, that we are staring at a low sugar year. The data from the Lake Erie Regional Grape Program is even more scary - current degree days are 24 days behind 2008 and a whopping 33 behind '07. It's hard to quite know what to do about making still wine in these conditions.

But low sugar doesn't have to mean low flavor and-or balance. I remember vintages like this in cool-rainy Oregon and one of the nicest Pinots we made came in at 19.5 brix. I think in a cool vintage like this one good wines are more about flavor and phenolics and not as much about sugar. In cool conditions getting the necessary heat to the berries to synthesize flavor and phenolic compounds is a struggle and every effort should be made to warm the fruit (see attachment).

Alcohol can be "fixed" with careful chapitalization to bring balance and texture to the wine. Chapitalization is a science and art and you should ask experienced wine makers how and when to ameliorate a wine. The biggest cellar problem I have heard about so far is high pH and high acid grapes. This is a real cellar conundrum. Wines that suffer from this imbalance can have awkward texture and suffer from "Eastern twang", that sensation you get when in your mouth when you play a Jews harp. You'll have to find a really experienced enologist to tame a wine with this problem. . . . The duty of the grower right now is to get the grapes in as clean as possible. At least if the grapes aren't fully mature the wine maker won't have to worry about diseased fruit and off flavors. That might not be easy, even if the sun continues to shine.

Downy and powdery mildew on leaves and even phomopsis on fruit are all a continuing concern, even more if the rain starts again. The rots are all out there, if not already fully expressed in tight clusters then in latent form just waiting for the right moment. There isn't much you can do at this point but to keep the fruit zone very open and hope for sun, dry conditions and a nice breeze. When the rot starts to spread, consult with the wine maker about the threshold for damaged grapes. Ideally he or she should be out in the vineyard tasting grapes with you. Whites are more forgiving of rot than reds so the wine maker might let white varieties hang a little longer. But if the grapes are mired in bitter, ripe or sour rots, you can't push them too much further before they turn to mush that has no hope wine.

John J. Jeffries dinner in Lancaster this month to include wines from Chaddsford Winery

One of the biggest supporters of regional wines will be teaming with one of the region's best wineries on Friday, Sept. 25.

John J. Jeffries Restaurant in Lancaster monthly holds a dinner that includes wines or beers from a regional producer. This month they will be teaming with Chaddford Winery for a meal that will start at 7 p.m. and cover three courses.

The menu includes Neck Pumpkin Bisque with Chaddsford pinot grigio, following by braised lamb shank teamed with a Chaddsford red blend of Sangiovese and Barbera called Due Rossi, and a pear tarte matched with riesling.

Tickets are $48, including tax and gratuity. Reservations at 717.431.3307 are recommended.

State hands over Governor's Cup to Black Ankle

Black Ankle Vineyards in Mt. Airy, Md., officially received its

Governor's Cup trophy Tuesday in Annapolis. Pictured are Maryland Secretary of Agriculture "Buddy" Hance and Black Ankle Vineyards owner Sarah O'Herron with the Governor's Cup trophy and the winning wine, its 2007 Crumbling Rock.

One place to taste this wine and a majority of other throughout the state will be this weekend at the Carroll County Farm Museum in Westminster. The times for the 26th anniversary of the Maryland Wine Festival are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. on Sunday. The cost to get in? $25, unless you decide to visit the Premier Tent, which costs $45. Entry into the Premier Tent will entitle ticket holders to a private sampling of premier Maryland wines and gourmet foods provided by area restaurants.

Fall fete on Saturday at Manatawny Creek

There's a Fall Equinox festival this Saturday, Sept. 19, at Manatawny Creek Winery in Douglassville, Pa. It will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. It's a chance to hear some music, chomp down on some food (including the famous Manatawny Mac and Cheese). Artisans will sell their crafts and tours of the winery will be given at noon and 3 p.m.

Owner Joanne Levengood said in an e-blast that they will have a second tasting/purchasing area set up on the crush pad to try and alleviate some of the crowding in the tasting room.