Winery Visit - Port of Leonardtown Winery

Last weekend, on February 16, 2013, I was at home for the weekend in Maryland and my parents and I decided to take a tour and do a tasting at the local Port of Leonardtown Winery. This was my first trip to a winery, so I was excited when my mom suggested it. Southern Maryland is not very well-known for its wines, but my family and I learned a lot about small-scale wineries and were also pleasantly surprised by the wines that Port of Leonardtown had to offer!

Port of Leonardtown Winery in Leonardtown, Maryland

Port of Leonardtown Winery in Leonardtown, Maryland

Wine barrel rain gutter outside the winery...as you can see it was a very rainy day!

Port of Leonardtown Winery is located within Southern Maryland in Leonardtown, Maryland. The winery sits by Port of Leonardtown Park at the start of a three-mile canoe and kayak trail that leads into Leonardtown Wharf, a beautiful nature spot. Visiting the winery is a perfect complement to a day of local sight-seeing or launching a kayak for a trip through Port of Leonardtown Park's wildlife sanctuary. In 2007, The Southern Maryland Wine Growers Cooperative was established with the goal of developing a world-class wine-growing region. The Port of Leonardtown Winery is a cooperative effort between the Town of Leonardtown, St. Mary's County, and the Southern Maryland Wine Growers Cooperative. Although none of the grapes for the wines are grown on-site, Port of Leonardtown is dedicated to bringing its customers the best wine from the best growers in the area. Port of Leonardtown is one of a few cooperative wineries in the U.S. A wide range of wines are offered- including one fruit wine made from Maryland apples! The tasting room is open from 12 - 6 PM Wednesday through Sunday, and 12 - 9 PM on the first Fridays of every month.

Brochure from Port of Leonardtown Winery

Inside the tasting room at Port of Leonardtown Winery- and my mom perusing the wine tasting list!

Slideshow of local Maryland grapes inside the tasting room

After the grapes are delivered to the winery,  the pictures below show where they are crushed, processed, stored, and finally bottled. Port of Leonardtown is a relatively small winery, but the owners are extremely dedicated to doing what they love- making good wine.

Inside the winery- the giant metal contraptions where the grape juice is processed into wine and then bottled

The bottling area at Port of Leonardtown Winery and wine barrels

Trademark wine barrels at Port of Leonardtown Winery

Port of Leonardtown Winery offered a wine tasting that included trying 6 wines for $5, which my parents and I did. Our guide, Connie, was attentive and extremely helpful when answering all of my questions- a fantastic guide! My parents chose more dry, red wines while I chose to sample a variety of wines. And I just had to try the famous McIntosh Apple wine! I ended my tasting with the very sweet Autumn Frost dessert wine, and was thoroughly impressed. The winery even provided my parents and I with a card that listed all the wines and had space for you to write down your tasting notes. I sampled the following 6 wines:

My parents and me tasting wines!

• McIntosh Run: A sweeter white wine, I enjoyed this light and fruity apple wine. This was my first apple wine ever. Unsurprisingly, it smelled strongly of apples and I also detected peaches. The wine was very acidic and crisp, and the zing I tasted when it hit my palate was surprisingly pleasant. I would definitely drink this apple wine again!
• Wicomico Rose: This Rose wine was slightly sour and very bold. I detected notes of blackberries and raspberries, and the finish was very balanced and appealing. It was not my favorite wine, but tasted decent and I would try it again with Maryland seafood, as our guide Connie recommended.
• Cabernet Franc Reserve: This dry red wine was part of Port of Leonardtown's Premium Wine Collection. It had a very strong scent of dark berries and plums and also had intense woody and oaky notes. The tannic structure was very strong. I am not a big fan of extremely dry red wines yet, so this was not my favorite.
• Chambourcin Reserve: This dry red was also part of the Premium Wine Collection and had won three gold medals. According to Connie, this wine has a low level of tannins. It had oaky but sweet notes. It also had notes of dark fruits like plums and was well balanced. For a dry red, I surprisingly enjoyed this wine and would definitely drink it again!
• Breton Bay Shoals: This sweet red wine was my absolute favorite of all the wines I tasted. In fact, I ended up coming home with a bottle of it! It has fresh and fruity notes with a lemony smell. It was very clean and crisp and I definitely detected notes of peaches and citrus when tasting it. According to Connie this wine would pair well with Italian dishes, and I plan to try that when I open my bottle. I absolutely LOVED this wine!
• Autumn Frost: This sweeter white wine was part of the Premium Wine Collection. It was light, sweet, and fruity...almost candy-like. For me, this wine was very easy to drink and I could see it pairing well with dessert! It had notes of pineapple and crisp apples. It was very luscious without being too heavy, and I found it very delicious. I would definitely drink this wine again.

My purchase from Port of Leonardtown Winery- yum!

My tasting card of wines to try and space for notes

Visiting the Port of Leonardtown Winery was absolutely a great experience. Although it is a smaller winery, for my first winery trip it definitely impressed me! It was so interesting to hear about how they make their wine and the long process and hard work that goes into making just one bottle of wine. Tasting wines with my parents was an enjoyable experience because my dad is pretty knowledgeable about wine and he enjoys exposing me to new wines now that I am of legal age! I was also pleased that I found a wine (Breton Bay Shoals) that I liked enough to buy. Our guide, Connie, made the experience extremely pleasant and joked around with me about Virginia Tech because she went to Radford years ago. I would love to go back to Port of Leonardtown Winery again when the weather is nicer and I can take advantage of sampling wines on the patio and walk around the beautiful kayak trail. They also offer special events, like food pairings with chocolate truffles or seafood, that I would love to attend. Overall, I had a surprisingly enjoyable and educational experience at Port of Leonardtown Winery in Southern Maryland.

Me with my new Port of Leonardtown wine glass!