Four Maryland wineries from the central part of the state will participate in the Twitter Taste-off at Sunday’s Drink Local Wine Conference in Landstowne, Virginia. Black Ankle Vineyards, Elk Run Vineyards, Serpent Ridge Vineyards and Sugarloaf Mountain Vineyard will join twenty-one Virginia wineries also pouring wine at the event. During the Twitter Taste-off, each winery will pour two wines. Conference attendees can sample the wines. During last year’s Drink Local Wine Conference in Dallas, Texas, participants voted on their favorite dry red, dry white, sweet red and sweet white wines. During the Twitter Taste-off twenty-six media representatives including wine and food bloggers and wine writers will write posts and send out tweets about the wines.

Sugarloaf Mountain Vineyard, located in Dickerson (Montgomery County), Maryland specializes in wines made from the five Bordeaux grapes as well as Chardonnay and Pinot Gris. Black Ankle Vineyards in Mt. Airy practices biodynamic farming and produces old-world styled wines. Elk Run Vineyards, also in Mt. Airy is the oldest of the Maryland wineries to pour at the conference. It will be interesting to compare and contrast Elk Run wines made from mature grapes with wines from the newest Maryland winery, Serpent Ridge. Serpent Ridge Vineyards located in Westminster planted vineyards beginning in 2002.

There are a few tickets available for the conference. Check the Drink Local Wine website.

A photo collage from late year’s conference can be seen here.