Fall 2019 marks the 11th year of operation for Black Ankle Vineyards in Mount Airy, Md. The tasting room serves as a gathering place for wine club members and locals on Saturday, Sept. 21. Sustainability is a major component at the vineyard, which opened in 2008. The tasting room is built from straw, clay, stone and wood grown on the farm. Its rooftop solar panels, combined with those on the winery’s storage building, provide 80 percent of the electricity used by the estate. (Noella Kertes/JOUR604)
Black Ankle Vineyards assistant manager Nikki Koehler, 55, of New Market, Md., poses for a portrait on the steps outside the tasting room on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2019. Koehler has worked at the Maryland vineyard since 2009 and is in charge of training and hospitality. (Noella Kertes/JOUR604)
Wine glasses are hung underneath long tables inside the tasting room at Black Ankle Vineyards in Mount Airy, Md., in the early morning hours on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2019. (Noella Kertes/JOUR604)
Baltimore resident Bob Ferguson is the first to arrive at Black Ankle Vineyards on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2019. A wine club member at the Mount Airy, Md., vineyard, he listens to tasting room assistant manager Nikki Koehler before sampling the 2018 Rolling Hills, a red blend that was released that weekend. (Noella Kertes/JOUR604)
Empty yellow harvest lugs, which are used to store freshly picked grapes, sit stacked near rows of merlot vines in the morning on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2019. The merlot grapes were picked by the Black Ankle vineyard crews on Monday, Sept. 16. The lugs will be relocated in the coming week once the staff determines which varietal is next up for harvesting. (Noella Kertes/JOUR604)
Clusters of Cabernet Sauvignon grapes still hang on the vines at Black Ankle Vineyards in Mount Airy, Md., on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2019. The varietal is usually among the last grapes picked during harvest. Thin wire meshing protects the grapes from birds. (Noella Kertes/JOUR604)
Christina Calloway, 34, the director of the tasting room, poses in front of the tasting room main door at Black Ankle Vineyards on Saturday, Sept. 21. The Catonsville, Md. resident oversees activities in the tasting room. “Not only do we all share a love of wine but we enjoy coming to work just to spend time with employees and the (wine club) members who make it all feel like family,” she said. (Noella Kertes/JOUR604)
Bowie, Md., resident Trik McCova, 50, holds a glass of wine sitting at a table with her husband (second from right) Dabo, 52, on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2019. They are joined by Eldersburg, Md. residents Sue Holt, 52, and her husband (second from left) Bob Holt, 61.
The couples spent the afternoon in the courtyard behind the main tasting room at Black Ankle Vineywards in Mount Airy, Md. “The wines are great,” said Sue Holt. “We come here a lot.” (Noella Kertes/JOUR604)
A bio-dynamic stirring machine sits idle atop a wooden wine barrel on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2019 under an open barn at Black Ankle Vineyard in Mount Airy, Md. The structure, situated at the bottom of a hillside of young vines, includes small living quarters for staff and used to house the farm’s chickens. (Noella Kertes/JOUR604)
The late afternoon sun filters through the vines overlooking the winery at Black Ankle on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2019. A wire mesh fence protects the vines from deer that roam the wooded areas surrounding the vineyard in Mount Airy, Md. (Noella Kertes/JOUR604)