Md. winery owners undertake unique collaboration with Baltimore eatery to open outdoor ‘kitchen’

Opening weekend at Black Ankle Vineyards in Mt. Airy, Maryland. Oct. 14, 2008

Black Ankle Vineyards opened in mid-October 2008, six years after owners Sarah O’Herron and Ed Boyce purchased the 142-acre farm at 14463 Black Ankle Lane and five years after the first of 22 acres of vines were planted on the surrounding hillsides.

To see the grounds and the inside of the tasting room on that opening weekend, with the couple of tables out front of a couple of attached structures surrounded by stones, and see how the venue has evolved, is eye-opening.

And, as those improvements and expansion of the business have continued over the last 17 years, they were asked, albeit tongue in cheek, if the business has gotten to the point where it runs itself.

The response over the phone from both of them was, first, immediate laughter. Run on its own?! Are you kidding?!

Still, Boyce pointed out, there are a couple of people in particular who keep the place running smoothly as they continue their ambitious growth, which includes a second winery anticipated to open in 2026 and several properties they purchased as potential vineyard sites.

“Melissa Schulte, our GM, is fabulous,” Boyce said, “and as close to running things as possible. And Evencio Torres Martinez, our farm manager, is fabulous. So we have wonderful help. But it’s still a lot of work, and we’re always changing things.

“The big thing happening at Black Ankle now is that for the first 15 years of our existence, we were like, great. We want to just focus on wine. That’s what we want to do. Customers can bring their own picnics. They can do their own food, whatever.

“And then lots more things started opening: breweries, distilleries, all kinds of stuff. And even a lot of our customers were like, well, I’d like to go to Black Ankle, but there really isn’t any food available, so I’ll do something else instead.”

So they started with food trucks, but “the food doesn’t always match the quality of the wine, and they tend to be unreliable; it’s imperfect,” Boyce said. “After years of thinking about it, and going through all the laws and this thing and what we can do and not do on site, we’re buying a food truck” to park at the winery.

In the meantime, Boyce said they are partnering with a hyperlocal, hyperseasonal eatery called Foraged. (“We think one of the top three restaurants in Baltimore,” Boyce said.) Per the restaurant’s “About” page on their website: “We believe there are 52 seasons every year, each week showcasing something new and exciting.”

Said Boyce: “They’re going to run this truck. Their chefs are going to staff it, and they’re going to buy all the food, and we’re going to have basically an outpost of the best restaurant in Baltimore at Black Ankle. It fits our vibe, it’s stuff grown locally. It’s all that. And we’re going to now be able to have foods that specifically are meant to match with our wines.”

The food truck will hopefully be up and running by July, he said.

Opening weekend at Black Ankle Vineyards in Mt. Airy, Maryland. Oct. 14, 2008

As for the new winery, called Live Edge Vineyards, what Boyce called “a long process” is advancing through the permitting stage. Located in Clarksburg, just off Route 270, Live Edge is located closer to a population base than Black Ankle, 20 to 30 miles northwest of Washington D.C., and many of its suburban communities, and 50 miles west of Baltimore.

There is no opening date, although the couple said they are starting to see the finish line.

“This has been a, what, eight- or nine-year project, so we should be a little less than a year away from opening. We should be, next spring, actually seeing our first customers at Live Edge. We’ll see,” Boyce said.

Opening weekend at Black Ankle Vineyards in Mt. Airy, Maryland. Oct. 14, 2008

With demands from a Black Ankle wine club that even several years ago exceeded 3,000 members, in addition to handling the customer load from a winery that’s open daily, adding another winery in a more urban setting increases the need for more inventory.

Black Ankle is a winery for dry wine drinkers, best known for its red blends but certainly recognized as much for whites such as Albariño, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc in addition to a blend called Crumbling Rock. They also make a port-style wine called Terre Dulce X. Bottle prices range from $39 to $82, with several of the wines offered in magnum-size bottles that run in cost from $170-$190.

O’Herron continues to make the wine for Black Ankle, which is open daily. Here is a link to the menu.

It has been a big favorite from the start, both in the tasting room and among critics. Black Ankle has won Maryland’s top awards multiple times and was included every year among the 101 best U.S. wineries during the period when the Daily Meal was producing that list.

In addition to the 40 acres of vines at Black Ankle, Boyce said they have planted 55 acres at their Clarksburg site, and noted that “the vineyards are doing beautifully. So we’re really happy with the vines. We’re really happy with the quality we’re getting out of our stuff in Clarksburg, so that’s really good.”

Among the grapes planted there are Merlot, Cab Franc, Petit Verdot, Tempranillo (“We’re going to get our first decent harvest out of that this year,” Boyce said), Chardonnay, their first planting of Sauvignon Blanc, and another 5 acres of Albariño.

What’s called the Tortuga Vineyard was the last one purchased, named by the vineyard crew for the turtle shell shape of this hilly farm. Twelve acres, or about a third of the property, is being farmed. Located in Clarksburg, near the main site, its grapes will be sourced by both wineries and is their first vineyard of Rhône varieties, including Syrah and Mourvedre. “It’s doing pretty well so far,” Boyce said of the Mourvedre, adding that “we did have a little experimental Grenache planting [but] that one’s not doing so well. Sometimes it works ... "

Opening weekend at Black Ankle Vineyards in Mt. Airy, Maryland. Oct. 14, 2008

Bottom line, they are farming more than 100 acres at several Maryland sites, with enough room to probably double that, if needed. They’ll have a better idea, he said, once Live Edge is open for a while and they “get some cash flow going. It’s been a really expensive project ... and we’re sort of at our limit right now with all that.”

Opening weekend at Black Ankle Vineyards in Mt. Airy, Maryland. Oct. 14, 2008

One more piece of land that will, for now, stay in their back pocket is called the Rinehart Road property, located in northern Maryland, about 3 miles south of Littletown, Pennsylvania. Per the Black Ankle website, it “has the makings of a truly fantastic vineyard. When we found this steeply hilled, incredibly rocky farm with absolutely stunning views (grapevines love a view), we could not resist taking the leap and buying it. Plans to plant it have hit a few roadblocks – grapevine nursery issues, global pandemics, and other vineyard sites jumping the queue among them- but one of these days, this place is going to make some really wonderful wines."

Opening weekend at Black Ankle Vineyards in Mt. Airy, Maryland. Oct. 14, 2008

But not right now.

Said Boyce on what they’ll wait to see: “Black Ankle has been a great success, but it’s a little more rural. Live Edge is literally 20 minutes from the D.C. beltway. It’s, I don’t know, 15 minutes from downtown Rockville. It’s in the middle of all sorts of people. So if it’s as popular as we think, then we’re going to need more vineyards. And then we have these in reserve. And then we’re going to have to figure out ... how to plant that site up there, because it’s really a crazy site. Really steep hills. Thin, rocky, lousy soil.”

Opening weekend at Black Ankle Vineyards in Mt. Airy, Maryland. Oct. 14, 2008

Added O’Herron, “It’s a little further out. It should be a fabulous vineyard site, but we’d have to be ready to take it on, I guess. We were ready eight years ago. We’re not ready now. We’ll be ready again in the future.”

A shot of Black Ankle Vineyards from the upper parking lot, taken in late 2020.

Opening weekend at Black Ankle Vineyards in Mt. Airy, Maryland. Oct. 14, 2008

Post Related

Post Related