Yesterday, Governor Martin O’Malley signed into law a bill allowing American wineries to ship wine directly to Maryland residents, beginning this July. Over three decades in the making (I first testified for “catalog sales” in the early 1980’s), this legislation makes Maryland the 38th state to enable wineries to make direct-to-consumer sales.

While some segments of the alcohol beverage industry have vigorously opposed this development, it is good news for all. Wine lovers will benefit from greater choice; wineries will enjoy broader markets, and will finally be able to conduct sales over the Internet; wine shops and wholesalers will realize the benefit of a heightened interest in wine, and the growth of new brands will ultimately inure to their advantage.

So, if it is such good news, why did it take so long to enact? Inertia is built into our legislative process. Bills - even those with obvious benefits and no apparent defects – are typically re-introduced over many sessions and continuously refined in order to gain passage. Sometimes it takes generational change, both in the legislature and in the electorate, for a new idea to gain a toehold. All of these forces were at work in the issue of direct shipment.

The important point is that patience has paid off, and the voice of Maryland wine lovers has been heard. In the final analysis, it was the sheer number of letters, faxes, e-mails, and telephone calls to legislators’ offices that won the day. So raise a glass to celebrate this new-found freedom, the legislators who voted for it, and the people who advocated for it.

It was a long time coming, but worth the wait.

Just a year ago we had the earliest spring on record, with buds breaking in the vineyard around the 5th of April. This year couldn’t be more of a contrast: as of this writing we are still in our winter coats. While a warm spring can jump start the vintage and lead to riper fruit in the fall, it also widens the “frost window”, which is the period between bud break and the 15th of May (the last day that frost has been recorded in our region). During that time, a severe frost can cut the crop in half, or take it completely. The longer the window, the less sleep the grape grower gets due to the anxiety that comes from dealing with forces beyond our control. There are preventative measures to mitigate frost damage such as wind machines, sprinklers, burning round bales, or renting helicopters to hover over your vineyard, but most are prohibitively expensive and one is illegal (the bales).

The good news is that we have grown grapes at Boordy since 1965, and frost damage has been rare, and limited to the low lying areas of our vineyard. This fact does not allay the fear that we will get caught by a rogue year, and May 15th is always greeted with relief.

The truth is that a cold spring is generally a blessing. It gives us more time to complete the work of the winter – pruning, brush removal, tying up the vines, & weed control. Whether the spring is cold or warm, the end of dormancy and the appearance of the first emerald shoots on the vines is a glorious sight to behold, and infuse us with the optimism of a new growing season.

Our Landmark Reserve Red received high praise from a blogger recently: http://www.vinotrip.com/2011/03/09/the-best-maryland-wine-ever/ . The article was forwarded to us anonymously, and the identity of the blogger was unclear, so the review had a digital age feel to it.

Maryland wines are often tasted by critics with a presumption of inferior quality. The general idea is that they will exhibit certain characteristics that will set them apart – unfavorably – from their peers from more “respectable” wine regions. Ironically, for an age that wallows in information this prejudice is outdated. Wines are a reflection of their place of origin as well as the skill of the grape grower and winemaker. As our understanding of how to grow top quality grapes in our region has advanced, the quality of the best Maryland wines has made a quantum leap.

The blogger’s review was done “blind” – he sampled two wines without allowing the labels to prejudice his judgment. One was from a respected Washington state winery, the other Boordy’s Landmark Reserve. To his surprise, he favored the Boordy. To his credit, he candidly acknowledged his negative preconceptions of how a Maryland wine would taste, and perhaps gave our wine an even more glowing review because it surprised him.

Label prejudice, of course, can cut both ways. In a tasting of wines from Maryland, Virginia, and southern Pennsylvania last year at a retreat held by our viticultural consultant, Lucie Morton, a $200 + bottle of a first growth Bordeaux was put in the lineup, all labels exposed. I found myself holding back, saving the “best for last”. Lo and behold, the wine fell into the middle of the pack. Because of its august reputation, I tasted it several times, trying to discover some hidden trait, some nuance that I had missed, but it was just mediocre. I was exhibiting the same prejudice!

I can’t count the times that our wines have surprised tasters in a blind lineup. Eliminating label prejudice is truly the only fair way to evaluate a wine. Labels are an important part of a wine’s identity, but when it comes to taste, they have no place in the room.

I had the pleasure of introducing guests at our three Fall Case Club Parties to our newly released 2009 Reserve Chardonnay which I poured from my “winemaker’s corner”, and also described in detail during my vineyard tour. It is the first small lot experimental wine to emerge from our new Landmark Project, and is a harbinger of many exciting wines to come. The Reserve Chardonnay is the result of close collaboration between Vineyard Manager, Ron Wates, and Winemaker, Tom Burns. Several clones of Chardonnay were harvested from a particularly favorable south slope in our Long Green Vineyard –- where the fruit achieves a greater degree of ripeness. The grapes were whole cluster pressed and the juice was cool fermented and aged in French oak barrels. The flavor is rich and full, and certainly marks an intriguing new direction for Boordy. Total production is just 161 cases, and the wine will be sold principally from the winery.

The best vintage of the past thirty years draws to a close, leaving us in a state of wonder at the gift that had been handed to us by Nature. The year was a study in contrasts: back to back snowfalls of over 24", followed by premature onset of spring which gave us a two week jump on the growing season, but also set the stage for nail biting frost exposure, which thankfully did not materialize. A wet early summer kept us busy in the vineyard managing vigorous canopy and weed growth, but a drought followed and our grapes flourished as lawns and cornfields dried up.

The result: we were getting sweetness levels and flavors normally associated with the West Coast, and the wines that were emerging were intensely colored and deeply aromatic. The 2010 vintage white wines will begin to appear in the spring of 2011, but the reds will not make their debut until 2012-2013. The only caveat: due to the drought, crops were lighter than usual and wine quantities will be quite limited.