Growers and vintners start tasting success

When Todd Connick's family stopped growing tobacco on their farm at Zacharia's Crossing, he turned to grapes.

Four years later, 1,000 vines take up about an acre of his 130-acre Hughesville farm, and with this season's harvest complete, Connick's vidal, chamberson, seyval, Traminette and Cynthiana grapes are at Fridays Creek Winery in Owings being turned into wine.

"It's a hobby and it's paying for itself, but you're not getting rich off it," Connick said. "They claim if you're making wine and selling wine, it can be lucrative, but I'm not a winemaker."

Connick is part of a movement in Southern Maryland, where vintners are banking on establishing a brand and stoking a growing, profitable industry.

"Our intent is to be able to put that 'So. Maryland, So Good' sticker on just about every bottle of wine that we make," said Rich Fuller, president of the two-year-old Southern Maryland Wine Growers Cooperative, which has 15 members.

Sales of Maryland-made wines were a record $15 million in 2008, and four wineries are producing their first bottles this year, according to the state agriculture department.

The Port of Leonardtown Winery, one of the newest, expects to cork its first bottles in March, Fuller said.

The winery is owned by the commissioners of Leonardtown, who leased the building to the Southern Maryland Wine Growers Cooperative. Fuller will serve as a temporary manager of the winery until a permanent manager can be found.

"Calvert County is the smallest county in the state and it has the most wineries," said Frank Cleary Jr. of Fridays Creek Winery. "The county commissioners have been very supportive, and that certainly helps."

The commissioners set aside a half-million dollars to support St. Mary's first winery, Port of Leonardtown Winery on Newtowne Neck Road in Leonardtown.

Fuller said the funds used to renovate the winery and purchase equipment were set aside by the St. Mary's County Board of County Commissioners and transferred to the commissioners of Leonardtown.

Over the past decade, there has been steady growth in the state's wine industry.

Maryland has 38 wineries, and the acreage devoted to vines for wine grapes increased 23 percent from 2006 to 2008, according to the Maryland Grape Growers Association and state agriculture department estimates.

Sales of Maryland wines reached a record 1.3 million bottles in the year that ended June 30, 2008, up 18 percent from the previous year, the state reports.

Wineries are also expected to boost tourism. More than 5,000 people attended the Riverside Winefest at Sotterley Plantation in Hollywood, Md., in early October.

Five of the 17 wineries at the festival were from Calvert County, part of a region being branded as the Patuxent Wine Trail.

Cleary said he thinks Calvert has become a winery-friendly environment not only because of government contributions but also because of the minimal impact on the land. The labor of growing grapes is more intensive than for tobacco, the county's former agricultural mainstay, but production is simpler, he said.

"The grape vineyards have been very low environmental impact, and it brings in tourism," Cleary said.

John Behun, 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 customers into his 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 wines to the Sotterley festival.