Mason-Dixon Wine Trail

The time has finally come and we can bring it out from behind closed doors.  We announced it this morning.

For a while now, the UnCork York Wine trail has been working on finding a new due to our neighbors up north thinking that there would be confusion in the marketplace with their "UnCork New York" slogan.  Basically, they were going to sue us for trademark infringement.  I wasn't privy to all the discussions, but suffice it to say that we decided to play nice and give up on our six-year-old name.

And I'm thinking it's probably for the best.  With the Civil War sesquicentennial coming up, having a Mason-Dixon Wine Trail is probably not a bad idea.

I'm sure there are some of you who are wondering, "Isn't there already a Mason-Dixon wine trail?"  Of course, there was, with "was" being the operative word here.  John Crouch (of Allegro) and Mike Fiore (of, obviously, Fiore) first dreamt up the Mason-Dixon wine trail back in the '90s.  Early on it was only 6 wineries, but we later expanded it to eight.

Managing a trail takes a lot of effort, and getting eight wineries to all be on the same page is akin to herding cats....although that might be easier.  Maybe, it's like herding drunk cats.  Anyway.  After getting the trail up-and-running on two separate occasions, we were looking to try it for a third time.  That's when we realized we were just duplicating what the UnCork York Trail was doing.  Do some simple math, and it was pretty clear that we should just give up.

Mike Fiore is pretty clear in that he sees the continuation of the name as a tribute in memory of his (and my) dear friend John.  I like the way he sees it, and like all good winemakers, we're honoring the tradition of the past as we move forward.

The trail will be different.  It'll be new. But hopefully it will be good and better than it was.

Comments