Maryland Wine & Grape Day in Annapolis

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 9: MARYLAND WINE/GRAPE INDUSTRY DAY IN ANNAPOLIS.

MWA is hosting its second annual "Day in Annapolis" this Wednesday, and we are requesting your attendance to meetings throughout the day and at the reception at Crush Winehouse at 5:30 p.m.

Highlights:

- Orientation of issues begins promptly at 8:30 a.m. in the House Office Building lounge on Bladen St. Meetings begin at 9 a.m.

- We have over 130 meetings scheduled with legislators throughout the day.

- The Comptroller's office is hosting a "Winery Compliance and Regulation" seminar for our industry from 1 - 4 p.m.

- MWA is hosting a Tasting of Maryland Wine legislative reception at 5:30 at Crush Winehouse on West St. Over 40 legislators have RSVP'd so far, along with the Secretary of Agriculture and others.

DETAILS, SCHEDULE AND PARKING INFO IS FOUND HERE:

http://www.marylandwine.com/mwa/laws/annapolis11.shtml

Please review the legislator schedule posted on the page listed above and let us know which you can attend them. We also need a strong showing at the legislative reception.

Thanks for your ongoing participation and support of our efforts in Annapolis. We stand to gain big this year with direct shipping and other advances in laws affecting wineries.

Status of Direct Shipping in Maryland

MARYLAND COMPTROLLER RELEASES REPORT ABOUT IMPACTS AND BEST PRACTICES OF
DIRECT SHIPPING
Report finds no adverse impacts in 37 jurisdictions polled, debunks myths,
and provides fact-based path to passage of Direct-to-Consumer Wine Shipping
legislation in 2011

The Office of the Comptroller today released a 257-page report based on
extensive research culled from the 37 states plus the District of Columbia
that currently allow the shipment of wine directly to consumers.

The report was released ahead of the December 31st deadline mandated by
SB858 Maryland Winery Modernization Act of 2010.

“The report finds no evidence of increased underage access, no problems
collecting taxes and no increase in alcohol abuse in any of the
jurisdictions that allow direct shipping,” Kevin Atticks, executive
director of the Maryland Wineries Association said.

The report is in agreement with a 2003 Federal Trade Commission study that
also found that direct shipping increases consumer access to wine, while
providing adequate controls states desire.

“We know from our peers in other states, that the ability to ship wine to
customers grows winery revenues by 15-20%,” said Ed Boyce of Black Ankle
Vineyards in Mt. Airy.

The report finds no adverse impact to local retailers or wholesalers in
states where wineries are permitted to mail directly to consumers.

“Direct-to-consumer shipping would benefit Maryland's consumers by
allowing legal-age buyers to get the wines they want,” said Cary Greene,
chief operating officer and gneral counsel of WineAmerica, the national
association of American wineries. “WineAmerica applauds the Comptroller's
careful analysis and recognition that Maryland has the tools to regulate
this vital channel of interstate commerce in wine.”

“Discussions from this point forward can now be rooted in fact, rather
than conjecture,” said Atticks, who notes that the first time Maryland
wineries tried to change the law was in 1981—30 years ago. “We look forward
to gaining the ability to sell our wine directly to both our in- and
out-of-state customers with the passage of direct shipping legislation.”

###



Additional resources:

Comptroller's Shipping Report [3.9MB PDF]:
http://www.marylandtaxes.com/DWS_Complete.pdf

Information about direct shipping:
http://marylandwine.com/mwa/laws/shipping.shtml

FTC report (2003): http://www.ftc.gov/os/2003/07/winereport2.pdf

Maryland Wineries Association: http://marylandwine.com/mwa/mwa/

Ben Clark

We know you're smiling on us, from your seat at the Captain's Table.

Patuxent Wine Trail goes Local!

It's a rolling festival! All of the wineries on the Patuxent Wine Trail will host special guests the weekend of Oct 23/24. If you have not visited your local wineries yet this is the perfect time to do it. Check out the website for details on who will be at which winery, and how best to travel the trail.
As for POLW, we're hosting Cafe des Artistes on Saturday and Thompson's Corner Café on Sunday.
They'll be here noon to four.

A side note: The park is currently under construction, so you'll see a lot of equipment, drainage fencing, and detours. No worries, though...be assured we are OPEN FOR YOU!

News from the winery manager

Wow, what a day.

It started at 6:30 am meeting Mark at the truck to let him in to get power set up for the bottling rig. Had a little excitement in that I set off the alarm and had to talk with operator 57 of our alarm company to forestall the visit from the police! Was interesting way to begin.

The crew all showed up and we got to work. A great group of friends and family helped, some from as far away as California and Seattle! We all shared Grace's breakfast Burritos and Mary's donuts and other pastries. Promptly at or about 9 am we got started on the bottling and all went very smoothly. It was hot, brutally hot and humid but things went well. Both red wines went through quickly and relatively painlessly.

We broke for lunch and when we started up again with the Barrel Fermented and Aged Chardonnay the problems began. The labels would not stick to the bottles. We tried everything; we slowed down, we sped up, we hand pressed the labels, nothing worked. In the end, after a number of phone calls to Pat and to the label folks we just decided to bottle without the label and fix that problem when we can. We now have 100+ cases of beautiful Chardonnay without labels - oh well, stand by for a call for a labeling party at the winery.

Much thanks to all who came out to help us, I hope it was fun for you and that you will come back and enjoy the wines many times in the future.

Fall bottling day scheduled

We're bottling our Fall releases on Wednesday, August 11. We get started early in the morning and run the line all day, so be sure to stop by and see us in action.
Three new offerings will get bottled:
1634 - Our oak barrel fermented Chardonnay, and two dry reds: Quarterdeck and Captain's Table.

Check us out on Facebook!

We're on Facebook!
Keep up to date with our latest events and activities.
Click here to go there now!

Tasting Room, Day 1

Thank you to all of the folks who paid us a visit on this, the first day of business at the winery! Hope to see you again really soon!

2010 Spring Release preview

Members, family, and friends got together April 14 and 15 to help with bottling our first wines! Much of the 2009 vintage is now in bottle. It just has to rest for a few short weeks to get used to its new cozy glass quarters before we can starting pouring!
We're releasing six wines this Spring, and will release (at least) two more this fall.

Here's the Spring release lineup...

Vidal Blanc - dry white varietal

Chardonnay - mostly unoaked

McIntosh Run - semi-sweet apple wine

Breton Bay Breeze - semi-sweet white blend

Breton Bay Shoals - semi-sweet red blend

Autumn Frost - lusciously sweet dessert-style wine from Vidal Blanc grapes

Bottling Day RE-scheduled

Ok folks, forget the previous post mentioning bottling day. After coordinating with the label maker, the TTB for label approval, and the mobile bottler:

The NEW bottling date is APRIL 14!

We will bottle everything in one day, instead of two days as previously planned. The bottler will be on-site about 7 am. It will take a couple of hours to prep the line and get ready for production, so volunteers can start to show up before 9 am. It takes five people to run the line and we'll be running for about 11 hours with at least two shifts and extra people taking over during a shift so no one will have to stay on the line 5.5 hours straight.

Grand Opening scheduled for Friday, May 21!

Ribbon cutting ceremony with local, regional, state dignitaries and more! Stay tuned for details.

Keep in mind, the winery will be open for business starting Friday, May 7th. That's First Friday in Leonardtown. The tasting room will be open that day noon to 9 pm.

Business hours will be:
Wednesday through Sunday: Noon to 6 pm.
First Fridays: Noon to 9 pm.

Bottling Day scheduled

We're bottling our very first vintage and confirmed the date: Friday and Saturday March 26 and 27. We've hired a mobile bottler who works for several local and regional wineries. He supplied the equipment, and we supply the wine, bottles, labels, and hands to run the line. It takes five people to run the bottling line. I'm not sure, but I think it breaks out as one bottler and four "quality control" checkers.
Come by and see the bottling in action, and get a sneak preview of our 2009 wines.

wine labels and wine festivals

A subcommittee of volunteers is meeting at the winery tomorrow, Saturday 16 Jan, to discuss wine labels. There has been a lot of discussion and thought and ideas going around. Now it's time to finalize our concepts and decide on a style and presentation that fits with the winery's principles, communicates our vision, and expresses who we are.

At the last board meeting Laschelle brought by the plans for the tasting room build-out. All present agreed it was a fine plan.
It was also decided that POLW would attend four of the six state-wide wine festivals this year! Check out the list at: http://www.marylandwine.com/mwa/events/festivals.shtml We won't make the first festival of the season because we're bottling our whites too close to the date. Freshly bottled wine goes through an awkward stage for about a month or so after being bottled where it does not taste so great. The general concensus was 'better safe than sorry', especially since it would have been our very first festival.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!
The winery's first festival appearance will be the Chesapeake Bay Wine Festival, June 5 and 6. Want to get in for free? Our volunteers get free entrance to the festival for working half a shift! Help us at our tent for three hours and the rest of the day is yours to explore the festival and all that maryland wineries have to offer.

crush to date

The premiere harvest for the winery is better than half done. It's been a challenging year for growers, and the volume of fruit reflects the realities of the growing season.
To deal with the shortfall in fruit, the board decided to buy about three tons of Merlot grapes from Virginia, and several hundred gallons of juice from New York.
The good news is we have enough local grapes to label it Maryland Wine, which regulations require a minimum of 75%.

Winery update

Hey all,

Upcoming winery events (working events, not the fun kind):

Villard Blanc - Joe will be picking and delivering his Villard Blanc today. Expecting delivery by late afternoon. Original harvest estimate was for around 1 ton. We should press it tonight unless we want to chill the fruit overnight (can be good thing to do) and press tomorrow (but I'm not available today until 6 pm and 4 pm on Thursday). Plan is: press - settle 24 hrs - rack - inoculate.

Chambourcin - Doug brought 9 lugs over yesterday - sitting in the chiller (our barrel room now has full cooling capability). He plans to have the rest harvested today and delivered this evening. Might have about 1500 lbs. This will get crushed and put into a bin for fermentation. I would rather not chill these grapes too much since it would take a long time to get the crushed grapes back up to temperature to get the fermentation kicked-off. Would be ok to let them sit for a day on the 60-65 deg production floor.

Today I won't be able to get to the winey until about 6 pm (trying to reschedule other things to get there earlier if I can). Thursday I would be able to get there around my usual time of 4 pm.

Chardonnay - It is looking like the Chardonnay will be picked Saturday - if it comes in too late in the afternoon or evening, we should let it chill overnight and then press it Sunday morning (ideally it is best to let the whites chill down to 50-55 before pressing anyway). Two tons would require two press loads. With a 2-3 hrs pressing time per press load and at least an hour cleanup time, I don't really want to be there until midnight or later. We plan to barrel ferment the Chardonnay.

The two barrels of Chancellor will need racking sometime over the next few days - time permitting.

Btw, we now have 592 gallons of Vidal ferementing away.

Pat

Newsletter Premiere Issue

Our organization is a group of wine grape growers formed to advance value-added agriculture, encourage tourism, and continue the rich agricultural heritage of Southern Maryland. We are accomplishing these things using our combined energies and in cooperation with Leonardtown and St. Mary’s County governments to establish and operate the Port of Leonardtown Winery.

The Coop was formed in 2006 and currently consists of 16 members. There are nine board members, elected to three-year terms. The board meets the third Friday of each month to discuss issues, coordinate actions, and decide strategy.

Officers include:

President, Rich Fuller fullergnr@verizon.net
Vice President, Caroline Baldwin caroline.baldwin@us.army.mil
Secretary, David Wood woodda884@verizon.net
Treasurer, David Wood woodda884@verizon.net

There are currently six standing committees that are largely responsible for accomplishing the bulk of the work.

These are the committees and their current chairs:

Building/Facilities/Equipment/Licensing, Pat Isles pisles2@comcast.net
Capitalization & Finance, Caroline Baldwin caroline.baldwin@us.army.mil
Regulation/Government Relations, Mary Wood Woodm@olg.com
Membership/Growers, Mary Wood Woodm@olg.com
Marketing/Sales, Rich Fuller fullergnr@verizon.net
Operations, David Wood woodda884@verizon.net

Anyone, member or non-member, can serve on a committee. You are welcome and encouraged to contact any committee chair for more information.


Recent Coop accomplishments:

1. The final document to satisfy the MOU between the Leonardtown and St. Mary’s County is completed and submitted. This was the last hurdle in the release of funds for the winery renovation!
2. Winery equipment! The first major piece has been purchased: A crusher/de-stemmer bought from Boxwood Winery in Virginia. It was used one season and the Coop got a great price on a critical piece of equipment.
3. Matching grant funding from MARBIDCO has been confirmed. The Coop was able to generate matching funds through the Certificate Sponsorship Program developed by the Capitalization & Finance Committee. The program is an opportunity for individuals to participate in our enterprise and to guarantee themselves an allotment of POL Wine for years to come.
4. Several local growers have been identified and expressed interest in joining the Coop. The membership committee is actively pursuing these prospective members.

Current activities:

1. Winery construction! If you have driven past the building recently then you’ve seen the big changes taking place. The doors are removed and the interior is gutted. You can see straight through the building from Rt. 5. The floor is now torn up to install the plumbing before a new floor gets poured.
2. Aside from construction, the Facilities committee is lining up all sorts of items needed to receive grapes this year: Presses, barrels, tanks, and more.
3. The legislative landscape is challenging for Maryland wineries, and the Coop is actively tracking bills, talking with legislators, and coordinating with the Maryland Wineries Association to promote our interests. HB 1272, a bill that could have been potentially damaging, was withdrawn and will now go to summer study. The work is not done on this one.
4. The process for federal wine manufacturing licensing has started.

Members and friends are working on many fronts to have the winery ready to receive grapes this fall. Don’t hesitate to contact officers and committee leads with questions, concerns, observations, or information. You can expect to see future issues of this newsletter to keep you informed.

- Gerald Byrne, Editor gabvine@gmail.com

Moving right along!

We continue to make progress towards our goal of opening the winery in 2009. We are now going to present our Capitalization Program to our members on Friday 23 Jan at our usual meeting place and time. The Program is designed to bring us in the funding we need to obtain commercial funding and state grant/loan to enable us to operate the winery from turn key until about May or June when we will begin selling our first wines. We have been working hard to reduce costs and think that we are about at the "bottom line" now. Pat has reviewed the list of equipment and identified some that can migrate over to the operational budget and that will help us with our start up costs. Still have to pay for it, just comes from a different line item is all. See you all Friday I hope!
Rich

a solid vessel, a sturdy crew.

Here's a look at the logo. We're a winery!

Capitalization Plan

Once we get the logo, the capitalization committee will put together a package for the potential founding sponsors. We will have to work with a printer and I'm not sure what the costs will be but we will have to pony up for the initial printing. When I get prices I'll post them so everyone is aware. So far I have only spoken to Hill Top Graphics in Leonardtown. If there is another local printer I should look at, please let me know. Since we are initially offering to members/families, SMCty and Leonardtown I would like to get a sense of how many members/family are interested in the equity certificates and at what level? Please let me know. That way we may be able to get some cash before the actual printing. Does anyone know where we can get a seal for the COOP? I would prefer the embossing type over the ink type.

Facility and finance

I have asked Laschelle to set up a meeting with Chris to discuss the timeline for the winery. Hope to find out from him if it is feasible to plan to open in the fall or not. If not then we will need to discuss alternatives. If so then we continue on and notify all members that we will anticipate needing and using their grapes.
On another angle, I extracted some of the information in the business plan and consolidated it into a short version for use in the prospectus. If anyone wants to see it and to edit it for me please give me an email and I will send it along.

This is not so hard after all!
Rich