Here at Allegro we've been growing grapes since 1973 (original plantings of Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay vines still surviving) and making wine since 1980. We're situated in York county, just north of Baltimore, MD. The Chesapeake Bay acts as a huge influence on our weather patterns here, pulling air across from our west and keeping us pretty gusty. We refer to these as the "Winds of Brogundy." (That's a small joke nobody seems to get). The South Mountain range on the east side of Adams county (40 some miles to our west) breaks up the storms that are coming from that way, creating a nice rain shadow for our vineyard.
("Rain shadows" are geographic areas that receive little or no rain due to climatic and geographic influences.)
We're sitting just shy of 700 feet elevation, so our diurnal shift is pretty small in the summer (and winter). This is not an ideal site for Riesling or Pinot Noir, so we've finally begun replanting those blocks over to Bordeaux varieties (better suited to warm nights.) Our soils here are well-drained with a low pH keeping vigor well in check (but brings with it its own issues.) Whereas a lot of places on the East coast can put a crop on young vines in the second year, our third year usually only sees half crop level. Some vines struggle to produce on the fourth year. Naturally low vigor is one of the keys when Mother Nature is regular in her summertime precipitates.
The soils are on 2-7% slopes, full of schist, and significant clay and iron. Our most recent plantings have involved a lot of Merlot to take advantage of the soil similarities with Pomerol. Merlot also likes clay for its water-holding capacity in late summer, since drought conditions tend to make it shut down.
Our current vineyard contains Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, Sauvignon Blanc, Semillon, Viognier, and Albarino. There's been a lot of focus on Bordeaux reds in the southeastern portion of this state, as too far north tends to be too cool to consistently ripen them.
Since we've been making wine for over thirty years, we've found that the PA wine consumer is pretty much like wine consumers in other states. There are a lot of sweet wine drinkers who are very accepting of local wines, and there are a lot of dry wine drinkers who don't accept that the wines made in their state are worthy of seeking out. With the downturn of the economy in 2008, these attitudes have slowly started to shift in a cultural evolution towards supporting and taking pride in local products. Our winery has seen production growth in every year since 2001, and significant growth in the past five years.
On the winery side, while PA has always been know for hybrids and native wines, there is now a growing percentage of us winemakers who are staking our collective future on vinifera grapes based on a 40-year track record. We believe that the future in our region will be dominated with Petit Verdot, Merlot and Chardonnay.
We here at Allegro think that certain parts of PA will eventually produce wines on par with the best in the world. We have great (low-vigor) soils, and a continental climate conducive to growing excellent fruit. Many strides have been made in the quality of our wines in the past fifteen years, and we're only now starting to understand the direction we should be taking our industry. I'm very optimistic about our future on the national stage
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