Perigeaux Vineyards and Winery
by
Kathy Sullivan
Summary: Perigeaux Vineyards and Winery is a delightfully friendly boutique winery located in St. Leonard, Maryland. The winery is a member of the Patuxent Wine Trail. The emphasis for the owners is on producing estate grown wine that has good quality. They want to be able to control the process from the vineyards to the winery. The winery is open 1:00 to 5:00 pm on weekends and weekdays by appointment.
Enjoy visiting Perigeaux Vineyards in the outskirts of Southern Maryland's St. Leonard. Walk along rows of grapevines to the small, comfortable tasting room. A deck, soon to be completed, is on three sides of the building.
The vineyards and winery name is derived from a small French town, Périgueux where one of the owners, Mark Flemming, learned much of his winemaking skills during college. The winery uses the name with a slight spelling difference. The symbol for the French town of Périgueux is a white goose and the owners wondered if they should keep that symbol for the vineyards and winery. John Behun, owner, remembers sitting at an outside table with Mark Flemming and seeing a white goose come up to their table. That cemented the decision to use the white goose as a symbol.
Perigeaux Background
In the second half of the 1990's, Mark and John decided they did not want to enter into retirement age not knowing what they would be doing. They began to focus on starting a vineyard. John wanted to get involved with agriculture as he had an intense desire to work with the land. By 1997 they were searching for land. Eventually they settled on a piece of property in St. Leonard, Maryland.
Vineyards
Grapevines were planted in 2002. In 2008 they added the Hillside vineyard and in 2008 they added the section along the driveway plus two more vineyards. Today there are eight acres of grapes with 5,000 vines on the 27 acre farm. Grape varieties include Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Zinfandel, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Montepulciano, and Sangiovese. In addition the owners have peach and cherry trees near the vineyards. Visitors walk along the edge of a vineyard from the parking area to the tasting room. The walk offers phtographic opportunities of the grapevines.
On the day of their first grape harvest the grapes were sold to an area winery. John and Mark experienced a letdown prompted by selling their grapes to another winemaker. That was the tipping point and gave them the motivation to make wine with their grapes. The owners want to have control over all aspects of the wines they produce from the vineyards to the winemaking.
Wines at Perigeaux
With the exception of Muscato and Riesling, all wines are produced from the onsite vineyards. Currently the winery is producing 800 cases of wine. They would like to increase to 2,000 to 3,000 cases. The focus of the winery is on producing dry, red wines.
Merlot Reserve 2010 was a ruby/purple. The aroma was earthy with black fruit notes and the taste also had black fruit nuances. The finish was fruity with tannins. Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 was a light purple. The wine had dark fruit aroma notes and blackberries on the taste. The wine was fruity with oak notes and had tannins. Cabernet Franc 2010 was red with aroma notes of pepper and oak. The cherry taste had slight pepper and oak notes. The wine offered mild tannins. Zinfandel 2010 was dark ruby. The aroma had floral notes especially of violets. The taste offered notes of perfume and berry fruits. The crisp finish had tannins and was fruity.
Events
Perigeaux Vineyards and Winery is a member of the Patuxent Wine Trail and participates in its events. In addition, Perigeaux wines can be discovered at several wine festivals.
When in Southern Maryland on a weekend be sure to stop by the Perigeaux Vineyards tasting room.
Perigeaux Vineyards and Winery
8650 Mackall Road
St. Leonard, Maryland 20685
GPS: N38º 25.205’ W76º 30.447’
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