Grapevines growing, but co-op winery has still to take root

Goal remains to sell local wine by 2010

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Though there was a ceremony in 2006 to kick off the winery, the location off Route 5 next to the bridge over McIntosh Run has remained unchanged. The old State Highway Administration garage is still sitting there.

Bob Schaller, St. Mary’s County’s director of economic and community development, told the county commissioners Tuesday that the cooperative was ‘‘a group ready, willing and able. The real issue is they’re ready to go.”

There are now 17 members in the cooperative, growing more than 13,000 grape vines on 20 acres collectively. When the vines are mature, there should be enough grapes to make 8,000 gallons of Maryland wine.

But the cooperative needs licenses and a facility to produce and sell the product. That will come with the renovation of the old state highway garage.

But work has to start now, if the timetable is to work out, said Caroline Baldwin, vice president of the cooperative.

Renovation must be complete by next January and all licenses need to be in hand by July 2009 in order to ready for the first crush in August 2009. The first wine sales are expected in the summer of 2010.

David Wood’s family farm in Mechanicsville has transitioned from growing the cash crop of tobacco to other alternatives such as greenhouse plants, fruits and grapes.

While not as lucrative as tobacco, ‘‘it’s a substantial amount of income that we can use as an alternative,” he said.

And the demand is there for grapes grown in the state.

‘‘At this point, there is a shortage of Maryland grapes” necessary to make Maryland wine, Wood said.

To be considered true Maryland wine, the beverage must be made up of at least 75 percent of grapes grown in the state.

Membership in the Southern Maryland wine cooperative is not limited to the region. Baldwin’s farm where grapes are grown is on the Eastern Shore.

‘‘We don’t really have a lot of time to get construction started” at the winery site, she said.

Not all of the funding is in place and the shortfall will be addressed in the cooperative’s capitalization plan.

But despite the length of time involved in the project so far, Leonardtown Mayor J. Harry Norris said, ‘‘When you have a project of this magnitude ... and on the waterfront ... I think it’s moved at blinding speed.”