2009 Maryland Wine Festival Diary: This Post Costs $1 To Read
Running Diary from the 2009 Maryland Wine Festival on Sunday, September 20.
12:45 – Arrive to the festival. It’s already pretty crowded for an event that started at noon. Lines to get in were epic, so noted to come earlier next year. Marylanders for Better Beer and Wine Laws are out in force, getting mailing list signups from people in line.
1:00 – We make camp and I go off to pick up our tasting glasses. On the way back, I try the Elk Run Malbec, a favorite from previous years. Still holds up.
1:10 – Back at camp, The Wife says I should go taste a bit while she tends to everything. She’s hardly surprised to learn that I have already begun 
1:30 – The Wife returns from her first tasting excursion with two tasting sheets, one of which simply has NO (underlined twice) written across all the wines. I guess we won’t be taking any of those bottles home.
1:40 – Out on the first tasting swing. I’m all spitting, all the time today. I frequently spit when I’m out tasting. I can taste the wines better, and on the plus side I don’t get buzzed and start writing glowing notes on all the wines I’m tasting. There are hardly any spit buckets at the festival, so I do my best to discreetly spit onto the ground and not hit anyone.
1:45 – Realize a disturbing trend: that wineries are charging $1 for tastes of their premium wines.
1:46 – Pay $1 for a taste of a Nebbiolo from newcomer Mark Cascia Vineyards. It’s my second Nebbiolo from the East Coast (the first was from Breaux Vineyards) and this one wasn’t half bad. Nice color, good little orangish-tinge up around the rim. The problem with Nebbiolo is that wineries seem intent to charge tons of money for it. I realize that Nebbiolo is a money grape that produces some serious Italian wine, but is there something else about it that forces the price up? Do the grapes actually need a credit card inserted into the vines in order to grow?
2:00 – My first spitting accident of the day. A nice woman was moving in behind me just as I turned to spit out my Fiore Chardonnay and catches some shrapnel. Sadly, she’s collateral damage. “Did I get you? I’m so sorry,” I apologize, and she replies with a “Oh just a touch on the ankles.” Nice work, wine blogger. Setting our people back years.
2:09 – Fiore has a pleasing, well-priced lineup as usual. We pick up an ice-cold bottle of Vidal Blanc for $12 to take back to camp and cool off.
2:12 – Man, there are a lot of wineries in Maryland. My Maryland and Virginia Winery Map is hopelessly out of date. Need to get back on that.
2:40 – There are two tasting notes in my notebook from 2:40.
Rose: Not bad
Pinot Noir: Bad
No winery name is attached to the note. Probably for the best. They might stop sending me all those samples that I’m not getting.
2:45 – One of our group proclaims that “[She] paid $25 to get in and will not pay another dollar to taste wines” Somehow, this only hardens my resolve to pay the $1 vig to taste the best that Maryland has to offer. She’s right, it’s audacious to expect someone with a $25 ticket to pay $1 to taste your $30 bottle of wine that is only $30 because you said so. Also, offering your lineup to taste and reserving one wine or two for a premium $1 tasting is one thing, but coming to the festival and charging a $1 for everything in your lineup is another.
3:00 – Black Ankle Vineyards hiked the price on their Crumbling Rock from $40 to $47. What could be the reason? Lower yields? Higher quality? 2005 Bordeaux-style run up of demand? I shell out three dollars for samples of their Leaf Stone Syrah 2007, Crumbling Rock 2006, and Crumbling Rock 2007.
3:05 – Someone asks why Black Ankle puts the year after the wine name instead of before like other wineries. For example:
Everyone else in Maryland: 1999 Chardonnay Reserve
Black Ankle: Chardonnay Reserve 1999
Just a matter of taste, no? I feel like the year going second is more formal, almost statesmanlike. I demand to be called “Gary 1978” for the rest of the day.
3:17 – I tasted Terrapin Station wines at Wine In The Woods last summer. The wine was disappointing then, but the Shiraz isn’t half bad now. They’re still sticking with the box thing in that you can’t buy a bottle of wine from Terrapin Station, only a box that is 1.5 liters in size. It doesn’t bug me at all but I bet the French are pissed to see this coming. A friend buys a box (equal to two bottles) to take home.
3:25 – Pick up a Sweet Tea, pulled pork sandwich, and a cheese plate to nibble on back at camp. Thumbs up for the food offerings at this year’s festival. Can you believe there are people in the world who can’t get Sweet Tea? The UN is meeting this week in New York and I hope they do something about this.
3:30 – Black Ankle’s price hike is explained as they announce the winners of the 2009 Maryland Governor’s Cup. The 2007 Blank Ankle Crumbling Rock wins Best In Show. Have you seen the list for the Governor’s Cup winners? Look how many wines came out winners of something. How does that work? Does every wine receive a medal? Is it like how everyone got a trophy in T-Ball?
3:55 – I spit out what must be my hundredth crappy Chambourcin of the day. Maryland, it’s time to punt on Chambourcin. Pull it up and plant Chardonnay.
4:15 – There were signs all over the place (pictured, right) asking festival goers if they knew that it was a felony to ship wine to Maryland. At one booth, a couple next to me says that they, in fact, did not know that it was a felony to have wine shipped to them in Maryland. Clearly, they don’t read my blog.
4:30 – As we peel through the crowd, the band announces the score of the Ravens game in progress: Ravens – 7, Chargers – 7. Chargers Running Back Darren Sproles already has a touchdown. I’m nowhere near a computer, but I can hear the anguished cries of my fantasy football team just fine.
4:40 – Just in case you were looking for more $40 Maryland wines, Galloping Goose has answered your prayers. I drop another few bucks to get in on the premium tasting action. I’ve spent something like $8 on premium samples today. I am a man determined to taste the best of Maryland.
5:30 – On the walk to the car we pass all the artisans and crafts that we didn’t see throughout the course of the day. Too focused, I guess. Good wine festival, Maryland. The music was awesome from the Blue Moon Big Band. The weather was great. It wasn’t too crowded to the point where you couldn’t get any wine. Looking forward to next year.
September 26th, 2009 at 7:54 am
Finally had the opportunity to jump on the Frederick Wine Trail and sample some Maryland juice. Ended up visiting Black Ankle and Elk Run. I enjoyed both wineries, although a bit pricey, especially Black Ankle. I enjoyed the Crumbling Rock, but damn, $45! I caved and purchased a bottle. Also purchased the Elk Run Cold Friday Cabernet Sauvignon. Enjoyed the Gewurztraminer as well.
September 28th, 2009 at 8:46 am
Glad you made it up here. Frederick has some of the best wine Maryland has to offer.
December 8th, 2009 at 7:13 pm
Hey, Glad you enjoyed the mbbwl.org signs. We are still fighting city hall on this. These festivals have been great to increase awareness. We find that collecting signatures supporting direct wine shipping is like shooting ducks in a barrel at these festivals. What we need now are more people willing to donate the cost of a modest bottle of wine- $20 to help our cause, and people contacting their senators in delegates in their districts. Anyone who is interested in volunteering a little should contact me at gmail: tmcquighan or mbbwl.org… Thanks and Cheers to MD wine- Tom
January 23rd, 2010 at 6:09 am
Regional Wine Week: The Best and Worst Maryland Offered This Year
It’s Drink Local Wine’s second annual Regional Wine Week. My wine rack is comepltely bare of any local wines, so how about we do like a sitcom and run a clips show with the two best and two worst local notes I’ve taken over the past year.
The interesting thing about this note…
Very light straw color. Cold steely nose. Spritzy and zesty palette. 74.
…was that it doesn’t sound negative at all. The score wasn’t even all that bad either (74) but somehow it all came together to inspire me to take the picture to the right. Editors note: This wine was actually from Virginia. Don’t know how it snuck into the Maryland wine post.
Elsewhere, the local wine fun continued.
Great up front. Pale straw color. Floral aromas, especially honeysuckle. Great palette with lots of steel acidity and even some rocky, gravelly mouth feel. The finish just fell apart though. Violent and unpleasant, I kept trying and hoping for improvement until I eventually gave up on it. 70.
Awarding a 70 sounds downright benevolent after that note. The funny thing is that this was a wine I’d sampled in the tasting room and liked enough to buy and bring home. Two months later, things were clearly different.
On to the good stuff, Elk Run had two of my favorites for this year:
2007 Elk Run Viognier. Nice. Springy apple and peach. Lots of acidity. 82.
Like I always say, I am nothing if not brief.
Still the leader in the clubhouse in Maryland is the 2007 Elk Run Gewurztraminer Cold Friday Vineyard
The first sniff gave me the same sort of I-don’t-know that I get in a lot of Maryland wines. I don’t quite know what it is (Old Bay?) but MD wines, both red and white, but it’s a little sulfuric, sharp… not particularly unpleasant but just distinct. The mystery aroma blew off after a few minutes. Past that, there was apple and beach, mostly round, full aromas. The wine had a Juicy Fruit, honeyed taste initially, very layered. Good acidity. The whole thing was almost a little wild. A nice, dry, light caramel finish followed. The wine changed for the better over several hours, giving out more fruit and maturing into complexity. On open, the wine was more of a New World style and after some time it developed a hint of minerality and Old World Characteristics, like something Alsacian. 88.
Eighty eight! Take that, more-well-known wine regions!
If you’re into more local stuff, go check out drinkocalwine.com and click through to some of the posts Dave McIntyre has called out this week. Happy local drinking!
October 16th, 2009 | Tags: drink local wine, eat local cheese, how on earth do you spell Gewurztraminer, local local local, Maryland, mystery wine, oceans of regret, ooh that’s nasty, regional wine week, Virginia, why did I buy this | Category: Maryland, Tasting notes, Virginia | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL