Baltimore County, MD smARTS, 30 Mar 2016

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From YouTube: smARTS: Historic Boordy Vineyards (Spring 2016)

Description

An interview with Phineas DeFord, vice president of Boordy Vineyards featuring wine, music and theatre all year at Boordy Vineyards.

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Hello,, I'm carolyn black-sotir and welcome to smarts, your guide to arts and culture in baltimore county.

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Here's what's ahead: wine, men,, women, and song, and theatre --.

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You'll find it all at boordy, vineyards.

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we'll meet daren jackson,, an opera singer and rap artist.

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Who will tell us about his latest role as world heavyweight boxing champion joe louis.

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Then, we'll speak with jeannie howe from the greater baltimore cultural alliance.

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next, we'll enter the world of contemporary jazz with otherworld.

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You won't want to miss their performance right here in our studio.

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And finally, we'll get smarter with a poem that paints a hometown picture..

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There is a lot ahead,, so let's get started.

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Historic boordy vineyards is nestled in the beautiful long green valley in northeastern baltimore county..

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The grounds of the vineyard provide an idyllic venue for music, song, and dance --, not to mention drinking wine.

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Joining me is phineas deford,. Vice president of boordy.

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Welcome to smarts!.

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Thank you, carolyn., it's nice to be here. where's, my glass of wine? (, laughter, ), still a little early in the morning., maybe afterwards. okay, thank you.

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I've been to boordy., I've had the pleasure of being there., it's absolutely beautiful, and,, you know,, it's all about wine, but you also do so many other things that have become a great attraction in baltimore county.

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So,, I'd love, if you tell us a little bit about how that all evolved or what's going on there.

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absolutely. so, entertaining is a big part of what we do.

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It's all about getting people out to, of course, buy the wine.

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But also to appreciate the maryland countryside,, our beautiful farm,, which is in permanent preservation, and just allow them to get out and enjoy a peaceful afternoon in the country.

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So, we started getting people out and we said, "well hey, we're lovers of music.

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We should add some music to this." and, of course, that's what we did.

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it's all history now., but about 15 years ago,. We started sort of seasonally, selecting music.

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That we thought would be appropriate for the customers.

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And now it's developed into a full season of really incredible and very eclectic mix of music.

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So let's--, I know that you break it down kind of season by season.

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Let's start with what--?.

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So, we can start right now. of course, we're into march now.

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so, we're still in wintertime --. I guess I'll go back to november.

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From november through march,, we do our winter barn events.

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Because, of course, it's too cold to be outside.

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So we have a beautiful historic, nearly 200-year-old barn.

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You do; I've been in it., it's fabulous.

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So we have sort of smaller groups, acoustic groups, --.

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Two- to four-man bands, -- bluegrass, jazz,, light rock--.

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And is this on saturdays, sundays,, fridays?, saturdays and sundays., yes., okay,, wow. and so, along with that,, we'll invite a food truck to come out and serve food for our customers., but it's just a--. It provides people a wonderful opportunity to get out of the house and enjoy some wine and delicious food and some great music.

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yeah, okay.. So that's your winter months.

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Then comes spring, thank goodness,, we're almost there. we're almost there. so, beginning in april, each weekend in april, we have our bluegrass series.

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and again,. Hopefully we can be outside for that..

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We have some great local bluegrass bands that come and play for us.

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So that's april.. In may,, we have sort of a range of bands..

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We do, of course, a mothers' day, festivities.

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And then beginning in june is our summer saturday evening concert series,.

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And that's when we really-- those are sort of bigger events.

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We have a lot of local and regional bands that will come and play.

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We have a band that does beatles cover music.

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We have reggae,, we have latin night,, we have mood swings,, which is a hugely popular band.

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So those are june, july, and august in the summer.

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And you get big crowds., you say sometimes up to 1,200, 1,400 people.

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We do. yeah,, so a band like mood swings,, which we'll invite two to three times a summer, always has a huge following.

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Well, it's just such a great event, because it's beautiful there.

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Drink some wine, listen to some great music.

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okay,, so that's the--. Have we covered all the seasons?.

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So we're just about there, yeah.

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In the fall, right around harvest, we'll go back to sort of lighter bands,.

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Sunday, afternoons, bluegrass, a lot of bluegrass.

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And I know you have theatre there,, shakespeare.

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We do shakespeare,.

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The baltimore shakespeare factory comes out several times. A year.

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they'll do several performances in august and again in the cooler months in november, [indistinct].

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Okay,, so we encourage everyone to go to the website, because you have this all listed, and you say some of the tickets are already sold,. Some of the concerts.

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The summer evening concert series tickets do begin to sell very early.

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Okay, so warning -- warning noted there.

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Okay, now, let's kind of switch gears because one of the things I love about wine,, not only drinking it,, is the labels.

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and I think the boordy labels are quite interesting.. So, you've brought some that we're going to take a look. At..

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Tell me a little bit about these labels;.

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We have about a minute left to talk about them., so we have two series of wines,.

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Two lines of wines that I've brought with me: today.

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one, is our sort of higher end estate wines, and those have a--.

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Our barn-- seeing pictures of our barn in the winter.

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And we thought it would be interesting to show people that yes, wineries do make wine throughout the year and that we do,.

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You know, have to deal with winter in maryland..

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The other is our chesapeake icon, series, and those are very recognizable labels..

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They have sort of iconic wildlife images on the--.

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Of the chesapeake region on their labels. so,, the rockfish,, the assateague ponies,, great blue heron.,.

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Oh,, how nice!.

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So, what's your favorite wine?, do you have a favorite??

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Well right, now,! I love the reds because it's cold.

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As soon as it gets warm,, I love rosés and whites.

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Okay, all right. well,, it's wonderful to see you.

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I've enjoyed attending many events at boordy, vineyards.

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Hope to see you this year.

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And I encourage everyone --, it's great.

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You are truly a gem here in baltimore county.

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Your family's been established here for a long time and the business, and we wish you the best.. Thank you very much..

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All right., we invite you to take advantage of all the arts,.

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Culture, and winery experiences in baltimore county.

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And here are some ideas for your calendar.

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