New Maryland laws easing restrictions on the shipping of wine and its sales in restaurants will help boost the industry within the state and aid Montgomery County’s only vineyard/winery.
Sugarloaf Mountain Vineyard, the first vineyard/winery combination in the county, was “almost getting ready to go out of business if this law hadn’t gone into effect,” said Maryland Grape Growers Association spokesman John Pardoe.
“They would have had to go through a nationwide distributor” to ship wine even to local retailers, he said.
Gov. Robert Ehrlich this week signed legislation that allows nearly all the state’s wineries to ship directly to consumers and also lets diners take home unfinished bottles purchased at restaurants.
But Montgomery County’s rules are different than the rest of the state: The county has a special alcohol distribution system in which the state collects tax revenueson every drop of alcohol, said Sugarloaf’s owner and winemaker, Carl DiManno.
“These laws will restore the revenue in the state,” he said, “but not really in Montgomery County.”
There are 22 vineyards in the state of Maryland, and they produce 170 wines that are sold at more than 300 retailers and served in more than 70 restaurants.
“There’s no reason why Maryland can’t be one of the big boys of the East Coast,” said James McKenna, co-owner of Sugarloaf Mountain Vineyard. “Let the industry harvest, put a little fertilizer on it, and just let our little baby grow.”
The industry is growing in the state, both in scale and reputation.
Maryland grape-growers harvest an average of 450 tons a year taken from the more than 250 acres of grapevines. In 2004, the most recent data available, Maryland wineries sold a record 139,076 gallons, or 702,000 bottles of wine, a 23 percent increase over the previous year. Annual sales for 2004 topped $7 million.
“A positive regulatory climate means a lot to the wine industry, which his heavily regulated and heavily taxed by the state,” said Kevin Atticks, executive director of Maryland Wineries Association. “If it is easier to do business, which these two laws allow, the Maryland wine industry will continue to prosper.”
