Best in Show

Now, I love French wine. Yup, I said it! I love drinking it, talking about it, and writing about it.
But I’m diverse, I drink other things too. This week we’re going local with the wine region and
highlighting the wines from the state of Maryland. How did I make the leap from Beaujolais
to Maryland you ask? I was one of 15 people that had the honor to be judges for the Maryland
Governors Cup Wine Competition. We sat down one Sunday morning and drank through 150
wines to decide who gets Bronze, Silver, Gold, Best in Class and Best in Show. It was tough
work, but someone had to do it!

It’s said that wine was first made in Maryland in 1648. Interesting, that’s over 350 years ago
but people still haven’t heard much about or even tasted a Maryland wine. The state is broken
up into four distinct wine regions with over 450 acres of grapevines planted: Piedmont Plateau,
Eastern Shore, Southern Plain and Western Mountains. The majority of the vineyards are planted in the Plateau region located in Central Maryland. The all-stars of the region are Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Chardonnay and Pinot Gris.

Being a judge in this competition gave me the opportunity to taste a whole lot of MD wine in a
short period of time. I was at a table with 4 other judges and we were served 7 flights of wine
before lunch, and 4 after. For each wine we tasted (of course) then discussed it and voted on
gold, silver, bronze, or maybe next year. In the midst of the Chardonnays and Pinot Grigios we
tasted, my group had a cider and a mead flight. It was a refreshing change of pace and one of the
ciders was the first gold our table awarded. After lunch were the red flights, with the
Chambourcin blends being a big hit as the grape grows extremely well in Maryland. After the 1st
round of tasting was complete, they brought out all the Gold Medals for us to taste again. I tweeted a picture of the view from my seat…overwhelming in a word. About an hour later, we
had our Best in Show. Wonder what it is? Head over to Maryland Wine and find out!

The GrapeVine hits the MD wine trail

The GrapeVine talks with Deb Scarbourough of Running Hare Vineyard in Prince Frederick, MD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N82A2_LKAow

Super Bowl Sunday

I'm dressed, had a hearty breakfast, and the car is gassed up...I'm all set to head to Westminster, MD for the 2010 Maryland Wine Festival!! I am a total supporter of drinking local wines, especially ones from Maryland. I've visited several MD vineyards, written blog posts, and regularly purchase and request their wines at my local wine shops. So to have all the MD wineries in one place to taste all their wines, YAY!

The weather was perfect! I have a bit of a plan, I wanted to be sure to taste all of the MD Governors Cup Medal winners. A lofty plan I know! So of course as soon as I get past the gate I am sidetracked. I see the sign for Elk Run Vineyards and I want their Merlot. Deep ruby color, tastes of cherry jam, so delicious. Now on to the Premier Tent for the 'special' Maryland wines, but I see tent for Running Hare Vineyards so I have to stop and say Hi to my friend and owner, Barb Scarborough and taste their award winning Malbec and Sangiovese. OK, now I'm really headed to the Premier Tent...if I can find it.

After walking the entire festival, past the funnel cakes, grilled cheese tent, crab cakes, kettle corn, wine glass holders, I find it! There is food, Riedel glasses and the finest Maryland wines, all under one tent. And it's actually under a tent which means shade and a nice breeze! First wine in the tent is the Royele Blanc de Blanc from Cygnus Wine Cellars. 100% Vidal Blanc grapes made in the authentic Champagne style...crisp flavors of apple and pear with a few yeasty notes and hints of sweetness. This is on par with some of the sparklers I've tasted from CA. Another white of note was the Port of Leonardtown Winery's 1634 Barrel Fermented Chardonnay. Only the slightest hint of oak but delightful toasty and red apple notes.

Cygnus also had a vertical tasting of their Julian wine, a Cabernet Sauvignon/Cabernet Franc blend from 2002, 1997 and 1995. The hysterical, and extremely knowledgeable, Carole from SE lead us through the tasting...and we agreed with many others that had tasted before us, Maryland wines can definitely age and the 1997 was amazing. Deep, dark fruit flavors and berry notes throughout. We did a Rose battle between Knob Hall Winery's Reserve Rose and Rose (Semi-Dry). Both made from the Chambourcin grape, I liked the dry style of the Reserve the best. Serpent Ridge Basilisk and Vintner's Cabernet, Sugarloaf Mountain Vineyard's Circe, EVOE, and Comus Reserve are all wines to look out for at your wine shops and restaurants. I finished the tasting off on the sweeter side of things with Harford Vineyard's Peach Kissed. Delicate, well-balanced floral and peach aromas with a soft mouthfeel. The name is so appropo, I felt like I was kissed by a peach!I had an amazing time at the festival and tasted some old favorites and found some new ones. My only wish is that when tasting wines, I was able to speak with more people that were knowledgeable about the wines...I always happened to get into the line of the festival volunteer. But everyone did have loads of literature out so I was able to find out a lot of information from there. I definitely hope they have the premier tent again next year, it added another level to the festival and provided an opportunity to taste some of the more 'exclusive' Maryland wines.

The Weekend In Wine

What a weekend to be a wino! So read this quick, pick an event, and have a great time! Be sure to report back about where you went.Wine & Arts Festival of Manassas
Saturday 9/18 - 11 am - 4pm
$10 to drink wine
Historic Manassas Inc., will feature the first annual Manassas Wine & Arts Festival at Old Town Manassas. Attendees can taste the fare from local Old Town Manassas restaurants, while local artists showcase their work! Live entertainment by local entertainer, Jason Paul Curtis will headline the event with The Fabulous Bob Meyers Trio
Old Town Manassas
Battle Street
Manassas, VA 20110
http://historicmanassas.mymediaroom.com/wire/events/viewevent.aspx?id=10059

2010 MARYLAND WINE FESTIVAL
Saturday 9/18 & Sunday 9/19
$25 Admission
Carroll County Farm Museum
Westminster, Carroll County
www.marylandwinefestival.org

2010 Virginia Wine Festival
Saturday 9/18 & Sunday 9/19
$30 admission
Bull Run Regional Park
7700 Bull Run Drive
Centreville, VA 20121
www.virginiawinefest.org

Vintage Crystal
Sunday 9/19 - 2:00pm - 6:00 pm
$20 admission
Come spend a Sunday afternoon in Crystal City tasting some of the world's finest wines. Sample pleasurable eats from noteworthy restaurants and gourmet eateries. The afternoon will feature talented jazz artists from the Duke Ellington Jazz Festival.
Crystal City
2200 Crystal Drive, Between 20th & 23rd Street
Arlington, VA 22216
http://www.crystalcity.org/do/vintage-crystal1

State shows off its grapes at Maryland Wine Festival

I've been quoted! Can't wait for 'Super Bowl' Sunday...LOL!

State shows off its grapes at Maryland Wine Festival - baltimoresun.com

It's Getting Hot In Here! AKA The Twitter Taste-Off

After a full morning of seminars and exciting discussions at the 2010 Drink Local Wine Conference, it was time for the moment we'd all been waiting for.....The Twitter Taste-Off!!! People were standing around outside the room, a few had glasses in hand waiting to rush the tasting room like it was Wal-Mart on Black Friday! We got the hand signal that the tasting was open, and we were off. Over 20 wineries from Virginia and Maryland were on hand to pour a white and a red for us to tweet about to our hearts content. Our mission, if we chose to accept it, was taste, tweet and vote. The voting categories were Best Red, Best White, Media Favorite, and Overall Best Wine.

Some were old favorites that were tasted again and some were brand new wines or vintages we'd heard about but have never tasted. I was most excited to taste Chrysalis Vineyard's Albarino. I didn't even know they were growing that grape in VA until Jenny McCloud mentioned it in the 'Thomas Jefferson' seminar. It was everything that people said it was and more, very creamy in my glass with notes of citrus and peach. I was also very fond of the Lovingston Petit Manseng having not been too familiar with Petit Manseng. I now have added 3 to my list as I enjoyed the 2 from Horton Vineyards and Pearmund Cellars that were served at the dinner on Saturday night. A notable red was the Kluge Estate New World Red, it had that dark fruit and toasty oak flavor that I like. I also enjoyed the 2006 Barboursville Vineyards Octagon, 2007 Corocran Vineyards Meritage, and 2007 Williamsburg Winery Adagio. I wish I had more notes to add on them but at this point, I was burning up!! My poor sweaty fingers were not doing too well with the keyboard on my Droid at this point. Wondered if it was the red wine or the room...but upon hearing everyone else commenting and sweating, it was the room. Apparently the air conditioner had checked out of the resort. I stepped outside to taste the wines of my current home state of MD.

Definitely the surprise of the afternoon was the wines of Maryland. A surprise to everyone else though. Living in MD and having attended and volunteered at many MD wine festivals, I already knew the state was working with some decent vineyards. The 2007 Sugarloaf Mountain Vineyards Comus and the Serpent Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc generated a great deal of chatter on Twitter. But none could compare to the talk surrounding Black Ankle Vineyards Leaf Stone Syrah! It blew people's minds! It blew my mind too when I first had it. Had they brought the Rolling Hills or the multi-award winning Crumbling Rock, I think people might have passed out!!

A couple of the comments on twitter under the MD wine hashtag #dlw10md were:

Nice Elk Run Vineyards Chardonnay w/ a soft footprint of toastiness. Glad to get a chance to try so many #mdwine

Cygnus Wine Cellars Blanc de Blanc NV is from MD - color is pale yellow, light and crisp sparkling

Serpent Ridge Vintner's Cabernet 2007 - blend of Cabernet Sauvignon & Cabernet Franc , beautiful deep red/purple color, dark fruit

2007 Comus Sugarloaf Mountain Vineyard ruby plum, blackberries aroma and taste mild tannins fruity finish

@blackanklevine Bedlam White Blend floral, fruity, moderate acidity ~ my type of summer time sipping sensation

The winners of the day were the 2008 Chrysalis Albariño for the Best White Wine, the 2002 Breaux Vineyards Reserve Merlot for the Best Red Wine and Media Favorite, and the Michael Shaps Viognier for Crowd Favorite. A fantastic event in which Virginia wines were shown the respect that tthey rightly deserve.

The GrapeVine Is In The House

Don't know if you know it or not but, it's a felony to ship wine to the state of Maryland. You read that correctly, a FELONY. And shipping your wine to VA, then bringing it over the bridge to your house in Maryland without paying any taxes on it....FELONY!! Some of you all should be locked up, LOL! I think this law is crazy so on Friday, I gave oral testimony before the House Economic Matters Committee in support of HB 716 - Direct Wine Shipper's License.

There was a great showing in support of HB 716, but then a few that opposed it. Their reasons were: 1) the direct shipping of wine to consumers in MD would devastate the smaller wine retailers in the state, 2) minors would use the direct shipping to obtain wine illegally, and 3) the state government does not believe that they would get their share of the taxes from direct to consumer wine sales.

For my first experience in any type of bill hearing or anything of that nature, this wasn’t too bad. Quite long, but since I am very passionate about wine and about being able to have what I want legally shipped to me, I didn’t mind that so much. I sat in the hearing for about 4 hrs listening to the arguments for the pros and cons of this bill. People were arguing to the death that minors would be buying wine online….but I don’t know any underage drinker that is going to wait a few days to have some wine shipped to them when they can just get an adult to buy it for them in about 10 mins! But I won’t even bring that whole thing up again.

My main issue with the blocking of this bill is, what about Maryland wineries? Everyone was so concerned with the retailers losing business, but how much business has been lost to MD wineries because they can’t ship wine to people that live in their own state??!!! Black Ankle Vineyards and St. Michaels Winery were there to represent for the hometown wineries. They both mentioned that new jobs and new revenue streams would be created for the state if the shipping bill were to pass.

I know this is an uphill battle with many whom oppose this bill but by speaking to my Delegate and providing written and oral testimony…I’m doing what I can to try and make a difference.