Southern Maryland has plenty to wine about
Growers offer oenophiles wide variety of tastes to please the palate
Behind every bottle of wine there is a grape. Behind every grape there is a vineyard. Behind every vineyard, there is a grower.
Todd Connick of Hughesville has never had a particular affinity for vino, and yet he has been growing grapes for four years, a habit he got into when his family stopped growing tobacco on their farm at Zacharia's Crossing.
His uncle suggested the family take up growing grapes, which Connick said seemed like the most viable replacement for tobacco at the time. "Three hundred turned into 600 and 600 turned into 1,000," Connick said of the grapevines, which now take up about an acre of his farm.
He sells to Fridays Creek Winery in Owings.
Connick currently grows about five grape varieties on his farm along with his father, Tucker Connick, and is planning to add an additional acre.
"Some are sweet … but you wouldn't eat any of these; they're designed to make wine," said Connick, adding that growing grapes has not come close to replacing tobacco in terms of income.
"They claim if you're making wine and selling wine, it can be lucrative, but I'm not a winemaker," he said. "It's a hobby and it's paying for itself, but you're not getting rich off of it."
Connick said that growing grapes takes a large amount of time and energy. That includes checking the sugar content of grapes, spraying them for pests, ensuring that they're growing properly and finally picking them at the end of August and through September.
"It involves tractors, sprayers, clippers … birds are a problem, too. If you're not careful, birds can come in one day and clean the whole vineyard out; luckily, that hasn't happened to me," Connick said.
Off season for grape growers, he said, is between the first frost of the fall and the last frost of the following year. That is usually late October to mid-March.
Once the weather warms up, Connick said, it's time to start all over again with new grape shoots.
In order to grow grapes for wine successfully, certain condition have to be met, Connick said.
"The land has to be right. The layout has to be right. The type of grape has to be right," said Connick, who explained that dry land is needed.
"A grape will grow on a rock," he said.
Connick said his vineyard is laid out in straight lines going from north to south, "so when the sun comes up, it'll be on the east side of the grapes and when it goes down, it's on the west side."
He said he learned most of this knowledge, as well as what grapes to grow, from the University of Maryland Extension.
Though Connick has dabbled in some winemaking of his own — and has received rave reviews from family and friends — he said he is in no hurry to start his own winery on the farm that has been owned by his family since 1909.
Both he and his father said that though they have considered it, the operation has always seemed a bit expensive. And Connick is not a huge wine drinker.
"I've tried every kind of wine and I'm like ‘nope, not that' … but I drink it because it's good for you," said Connick, who also grows barley on his farm.
"Of course, barley is used to grow beer, but I haven't gone there," he laughed.
He said there is enough adventure in growing grapes for wine. "It's never-ending. You're always learning something."
‘We hope to please everybody a little bit'
Thanks to the 15-member Southern Maryland Wine Growers Cooperative, The Port of Leonardtown Winery has gone from a vision to a reality.
Rich Fuller of Lexington Park, the Southern Maryland Wine Growers Cooperative's president, said the group incorporated in May 2007 and immediately got started on St. Mary's first winery, which Fuller said the St. Mary's County commissioners set aside half a million dollars to support.
"A winery is a nice spot for tourism," Fuller said of the facility located on Newtowne Neck Road in Leonardtown.
Construction, Fuller said, started in early May of this year in a 60-year-old building that was once a state road crew garage.
He said that about 90 percent of the funds used for the winery's implementation came from St. Mary's, and the remaining 10 percent came from the town of Leonardtown.
Fuller said he received the funding after the cooperative put together business and marketing plans and conducted a feasibility study to determine if the winery would be successful.
Now, the majority of the grapes are fermenting, Fuller said. The first wines are expected to be bottled in March and the tasting room is to open in May.
"We'll be in full swing this time next year," said Fuller, who continued that the co-op intends on selling Chardonnay, Merlot, Viognier, Cabernet Franc, Vidal Blanc and Chambourcin. All of the grapes are locally grown.
"Our intent is to be able to put that ‘So. Maryland, So Good' sticker on just about every bottle of wine that we make," Fuller said, adding that for this reason, he doubts the winery will be able to produce Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling and Zinfandel.
"They just don't grow well down here … the heat and humidity of our summers just aren't good for them," he said.
Even so, Fuller said that the Port of Leonardtown Winery will have a balanced mix of both sweet and dry wines.
"We hope to please everybody a little bit," he said.
The winery will also showcase the work of local artists, which will be sold by commission in the tasting room. There will be events and tastings on the winery's patio, and eventually a picnic area and demonstration vineyard in the surrounding park, which is the process of being landscaped.
This, Fuller said, is the larger vision for the Port of Leonardtown Winery, which he said will have a "laid back, traditional … hopefully, warm and cozy" atmosphere.
The winemaker will be Patrick Isles of Lusby. Fuller said that the cooperative has also worked with a wine consultant "to keep us out of trouble."
There has also been advice from other wineries, he said.
"Wine business is a lot less competitive than other businesses … [other local wineries] have been more cooperative than competitive and it really helps a new winery coming along," said Fuller, who added that his misconceptions regarding doing business with the government proved to be false.
"It's really been a treat working with the county and the town and the state offices that we've worked with; they've been tremendous," Fuller said. "It's so easy [for them] to say no, but they've really worked with us."
‘I know what's good and I know what's crap'
Seventeen wineries were present at the Riverside Winefest at Sotterley Plantation in Hollywood, held the first weekend in October. Five of these wineries were from Calvert, all of which make up the Patuxent Wine Trail.
"Calvert County is the smallest county in the state and it has the most wineries in the state," said Frank Cleary Jr. of Fridays Creek Winery in Owings, who continued, "the county commissioners have been very supportive, and that certainly helps."
Cleary said that he believes Calvert has become a winery-friendly environment not only due to government support but also because of the minimal impact on the land. "The grape vineyards have been very low environmental impact and it brings in tourism," Cleary said, adding that grapes are not nitrogen dependent, which also makes their production simpler than tobacco.
"I know what I can grow and what I can't," said Mike Scarborough, the owner of Running Hare Vineyard in Prince Frederick, which he said has sources for grapes from all over the world.
Scarborough said that despite having no background in chemistry, "I drank wine all my life, and I know what's good and I know what's crap."
What's good apparently is Running Hare Pinot Grigio, which has won the gold medal in the Dallas Morning News International Wine Competition of 2009, the silver medal in the Maryland Governor's Cup of 2008 and the bronze medal in the California 2009 Gold Harvest.
Scarborough, who said he tries to avoid sugary- sweet wines, said his personal favorite is Running Hare's Sangiovese, which won the gold medal in the 2009 Maryland Governor's Cup wine competition.
He suggested leaving the bottle open for 45 minutes before drinking: "This has a fabulous nose … when it opens up you start getting different flavors."
Solomons Island Winery of Lusby does not shy from the sweeter wines and even started a "Solomons Island Mist" line, which Assistant Manager Melissa Korando described as "sweeter, lighter and served chilled."
"It's great in the summer, though fans of the mists will drink them all year round and we're grateful for that," said Korando, who cited the Green Apple Riesling as the best seller.
"Even though it's sweet, it has that apple, which gives it a tartness," she said, likening the taste to a "low-alcohol apple martini."
As for the traditional wines, Korando said that the Solomons Rosé of Merlot is a crowd pleaser.
"We've been sold out of that since June," she said.
At festivals, most winery owners came to a similar conclusion that sweeter wines were the big sellers. Individual wine preferences "vary from festival to festival … but sweet wines are always the more popular," said Tim Lewis, the owner of Cove Point Winery in Lusby.
Lewis explained that at festivals the traditional set-up for tastings starts with dry wines and eventually makes its way to sweeter ones. "But most customers pick and choose what they want to taste anyway," Lewis said.
John Behun, the owner and vice president of Perigeaux Vineyards and Winery in St. Leonard, said he views festivals as the first step to his ultimate goal: getting people into the winery.
"It's better, of course, if they go to the winery and take a tour and do a tasting, but we enjoy the festivals as well," said Behun, who brought 14 different wines to the Sotterley wine fest.
Those at the festival who were hoping to purchase the award-winning Perigeaux Cabernet Franc 2007 and Summer Sunset 2005, were out of luck. Both were sold out for the year, Behun said.
The relationships between the various businesses is rarely cutthroat, he said.
"Of course there's competition, naturally … but everyone has different taste and every winery is unique," Behun said.
Cleary agreed with this perspective.
"If you like my Gew?rztraminer, you can't walk into a vinery in Virginia and have a Gew?rztraminer that is the same," Cleary said of his winery's spicy German wine that he said "goes with anything with Old Bay."
The wine business, he said, is "only competitive in that people only have so much money to spend on wine."
How they drink their wine?
Sherri Gedridge of Lusby: "I love drinking wine all the time, but primarily with my friends and family."
Stacey Kennett of Hollywood: "Anytime; I like a nice, oaky Chardonnay."
Mike Green of Waldorf: "During the evening times: at dinner and sitting on the back porch."
Lisa Cointot of California: "All the time: with dinner; while cooking dinner; in dinner. I like sweeter wines, like Riesling."
Joe and Karen Roberts of California: "During holidays and at dinner. We like both reds and whites; he's a little sweeter, I'm a little dryer."
Lea Cox of Lexington Park: "I drink it at meals or I'll lie in bed with a glass of wine next to me and read."
Mary Bonk of Lexington Park: "I prefer [drinking wine] with my friends sitting on the porch or at picnics."