Maryland wineries have grape expectations

FREDERICK COUNTY, MD. - Before touring the wineries of Frederick County, my wife, Jan, and I mull two potential hazards: the drinking and the driving.

Though we are not snobs, we know the difference between good wine and bad. Our first concern is that the wine might taste dreadful. We live in Maryland, but we know zip about the state's wines or its wineries. Crabs, yes; cabs, no.

Our second concern is how to sample the wares at one establishment and drive soberly to the next. We solve that by making an overnight of it at a Frederick motel and by taking very, very small sips of various wines, buying bottles of the ones we like and saving them for choice moments. Maybe uncorking one later in the evening, when we are reading Pablo Neruda's "Ode to Wine" together: "Day-colored wine,/ night-colored wine,/ wine with purple feet/ or wine with topaz blood."

The newly emerging wine country east and northeast of Frederick, 50 miles northwest of Washington, is rolling and lovely, even in the gray drear of winter. There is a romantic poetry in the starkness, leafless trees and omnipresent birds silhouetted against the sky. And because the wineries are open year-round, there is more time to learn about the craft. Besides, wine can warm the coldest heart.

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Our first stop of the day is Linganore Winecellars near New Market. Joanne Lachance, the amiable, unpretentious tasting-room manager, tells us of the vineyard's first planting in 1972 by Jack and Lucille Aellen and of the traditions that have been handed down. The tasting room is a spacious, well-lighted, remodeled part of a giant old peg barn that also houses the company's winemaking and bottling contraptions.....for more of the story