Maryland Wine Tasting & Maryland Vineyards

October 19, 2007

“Tobacco farming is effectively dead, and there is a lot of land looking for something to do,” says Rob Deford, owner of Boordy Winery in Hyde, Md., about 15 miles north of Baltimore. After a state buyout program in 1998, many tobacco farmers turned to viticulture. But a deficit of local grapes exists (with 1.5 tons imported for every ton grown in Maryland) “because the [wine] industry is growing so fast,” says Deford, who was a produce farmer before being recruited to grow grapes for Boordy and who purchased the winery in 1980 after studying viticulture at University of California-Davis.

“We were the first winery in the state and one of the first in the East, post-Prohibition,” Deford says. Now Boordy is one of eight wineries on the Mason-Dixon Wine Trail—a two-state collaboration that Deford says makes a point of maintaining an equal number of wineries in Maryland and Pennsylvania, all within a 20-minute drive of each other. It is one of nine wine trails identified by the Maryland Wineries Association.

Although he now sees about 50,000 tasting-room guests in a year, Deford caters to a single-state market. “That’s where the pride factor is working in your favor; and Maryland, fortunately, is a thirsty state,” he says. He’s most proud of his winery’s Cabernet Franc and a blend called Rockfish (named after the state fish) made with Seyval Blanc, Vidal Blanc, and Chardonnay. Grapes that do best in Maryland are Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio, Sauvignon Blanc, and Vidal Blanc.

Boordy has more than tripled production in the last six years, and Deford is excited to see other wine-producing regions besides the usual suspects in the press.

“I’m pleased to see that slowly but surely the outback is gaining attention.”

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