OC Wine Fest keeps getting better with age

For the uninitiated, Wine Fest focuses on boutique wineries that don't mass-produce wine, offering something wine aficionados might not see at their local package store or grocery, said event organizer Jerry Hardesty.

"If you're here, you're going to have the chance to discover something fun, interesting and very good," he said. "It's all about the taste. It's about the discovery. You get to sample so many different wines. It's a hell of a culinary experience."

Jerry and wife, Chris Hardesty, founded the event after having put on similar wine events in Annapolis. After the couple brought it to Ocean City, it's grown every year, bringing more vineyards, more vendors and more visitors.

The $23 admission gets you a plastic tasting glass -- which many people keep safe and snug in a fabric holster slung around their necks -- and free reign to sample hundreds of wines from 19 participating vineyards.

St. Michaels Winery, of the eponymous Talbot County hamlet, is a boutique vintner that brought 11 wines to taste, including a chocolate zinfandel -- it's a regular red zin that adds liquid chocolate before it goes to bottling -- that proved very popular with tasters.

Marketing manager Lindsay Bradley, who brings St. Michaels wines to a dozen Maryland wine festivals a year, said the resort's Wine Fest brings a mix of locals and out-of-towners.

Visitors are "very surprised," she said, "at the quality of Maryland wines, how it's come up in the last couple of years."

The event also draws all sorts of vendors from around the region, selling everything from cigars to clothing to oak barrels for your spirits.

At one tent, John Carbonaro of Brooklyn, N.Y., was selling rhinestone-emblazoned wine-themed tank tops. One read: "How merlot can you go?" Another showed two clinking flutes of red that said: "At my age, I need glasses."

"I like the atmosphere -- people drinking, having a good time," he said. "It's nice to be on the beach. And we try to make money, too. Let them drink a little, have a good time and they catch me on the way out."

The laid-back, fun-loving atmosphere was pervasive early Friday, and event volunteers said it turns into an all-out party come tonight. They also said they hope the weather complies, as this weekend's forecast is calling for some showers.

Gail Duerr came with a group of girlfriends from Towson, Md., for the fifth consecutive year.

"I am having a blast," she said at noon Friday. "It starts real quiet, but about 3:30, undergarments start coming off. And I'm not driving!"

bshane@dmg.gannett.com

410-213-9442, ext. 14