The Maryland Wine Club

Maryland Wine Clubs...
Out of The American Miniature Wine Region

The state of Maryland is small... tiny when you compare it to other major wine-producing states, such as Oregon or California. But Maryland's location has earned it the nickname The American Miniature because it features multiple climates and topographies.

Believe it or not, there are only eight U.S. states smaller than Maryland, yet it has four distinctly different wine regions!

Choices, Choices!

It's no wonder that Maryland can offer you over 300 different wines to match your palate and pocketbook.

There are about 35 commercial wineries within the state, and wine making first began in 1648. If you strive to perfect an art for over 350 years, you probably know what you are doing. Maryland has great wine!

To prove it to you, Maryland has organized one of the largest wine festivals in the nation. Held every September since 1985, the Maryland Wine Festival is no small thing. It will welcome you... and 25,000 of your closest wine-drinking friends for the festivities.

At the festival, or really any day in Maryland, you can enjoy grape wines, fruit wines, dessert wines, and specialty brews such as sangria, spiced apple drinks, and even mead... fermented honey.

Varietals in the state of Maryland involve about every grape you could ask for. You can find Italian and Mediterranean grapes in the Southern Plains, and old, old classics on the Piedmont Plateau. The western mountain region grows Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc, Norton, Seyval and others, while the Eastern Shore grows everything you want.

Maryland Wine Clubs

Maryland has jumped head first into wine legislation, especially the shipping laws. Their rules concerning shipping alcohol are very tricky, which make it hard for their great wineries to offer you wine clubs.

Many of them do have clubs, but you are probably going to have to visit the wineries to join them.

The most popular type of Maryland wine club is the case club.

With these clubs, you will usually go to the winery and select your bottles, since you probably won't be able to get them through the mail. When you sign up for the club, you will receive a discount, which becomes progressively larger with each case you buy. It's a good way for you to save on wine.

To keep you coming back, wine clubs in Maryland will also offer private tastings for you and their other club members. These are fun ways for you to meet other wine drinkers and select wine for your cases, since you are already familiar with the winery.

Maryland wine club members also receive newsletters, and often you will get discounts on merchandise and tours.

You can join a case club at about a quarter of Maryland's 35 wineries. Elk Run, Fiore Winery, St. Michael's Winery, Sugarloaf Mountain and Woodhall are all wineries with good case club deals and nice, warm and welcoming tasting rooms for you to visit.

Be sure to check out Boordy Vineyards too. They offer you a great case club, and they are the state's oldest commercial winery; so you can be sure of finding a great selection of tasty wines.

All in all, it will be hard for you to find such a variety of wine packed into such a small area anywhere else. Maryland is truly a unique area. You will enjoy the scenery, the wine, and the Maryland wine clubs when you visit America in Miniature.