Perigeaux Winery owners John Behun and Mark Flemming at their vineyard in St. Leonard. Two of their wines were recently featured at a dinner held at the State Department in Washington, D.C.
St. Leonard, MD – Like most of the new wineries in Southern Maryland, Perigeaux Winery in St. Leonard planted their vines in 2001 and waited four years to gather their first harvest.
That time span mirrored the four years owners John Behun and Mark Flemming had searched all over the mid-Atlantic region for the right sandy loamy soil and warm climate for grapes, a search which ended in St. Leonard in Calvert County.
From the planting of the first vineyard of 2,200 vinifera vines in April 2002, Perigeaux has grown from the original vineyard to four estate vineyards encompassing eight acres of nearly 5,000 vines and from its first bottling of three cases in 2005 to nearly 900 cases of wine annually.
On April 18, two of Perigeaux’s wines were featured at a charitable dinner held at the U.S. State Department in Washington, DC for the Foundation for the Humanities, Arts and Preservation in U.S. embassies throughout the world.
“We support the foundation by donating wine,” Flemming noted.
The wines featured included their 2014 Chardonnay and the 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon.
They’ve come a long way since their first planting in 2002.
“We were looking for the right soil to grow Bordeau vines,” Flemming said. “We’re the only ones in Maryland [with] the Bordeau grapes. We were told zinfandel grapes would not work on the East Coast, but we have had good success with them. You can’t find a zinfandel grown on the East Coast except here.”
He added that the late freeze only singed the very ends of vines and that so far the vines have weathered this year’s crazy climate well.
Things are looking good for a banner harvest for 2015.
Perigeaux Winery is located at 8650 Mackall Road, St. Leonard. For more information call 410-586-2710 or go to perigeaux.com.
Contact Joseph Noris at joe.norris@thebaynet.com