on August 24, 2016 at 6:19 PM, updated So maybe this will open some eyes to the potential of Albarino in the region. The white grape with its roots deeply buried in Spain's production history won Maryland's Governor's Cup, the state's most prestigious wine competition. Results from the July competition were announced Monday, with Boordy Vineyards' 2015 varietal finishing atop the heap.  It's the fourth time that Baltimore County winery, the oldest operating in the state and one of the oldest on the East Coast, has won the Governor's Cup since the contest originated in 1991. Here's the list of winners through the year. "The Albarino has been very well received by our customers, and thus far quite successful in competition, having won "Best of Class" in the Comptroller's Cup [held in Maryland in May], and now the overall top honors in the Governor's Cup," Boordy president Rob Deford wrote in an email Wednesday afternoon. "It's an exciting variety in many respects: it's proven quite resilient in the vineyard, is fruitful, and has a naturally bright acidity when it is fully ripe.

A number of varieties lose their acidity as we wait for physiological ripeness, so this is a distinct advantage in our climate. I think it might also help with disease resistance, but we are relatively new to the variety and there is much to be learned."best wine china 2016 Crisp, versatile Albarino set for weeklong international toastwine shops for sale uk In a region where wineries have been around long enough to learn what grows well here and what doesn't, Albarino has come along as a "second generation" planting. best wine bag in boxSuccess has accompanied it, with Maryland wineries such as Old Westminster and Black Ankle finding a growing interest in a white that offers minerality and zestiness and, in many drinkers' vocabulary, a taste of fresh pineapple.best place to drink wine in europe

Albarino has found other homes on the East Coast outside Maryland, including at   Allegro in southern York County and The Vineyard at Grandview in Lancaster County. John Cifelli, general manager at Unionville Vineyards in central New Jersey, said they like the wine they made for a time out of Albarino grapes sourced from the Jersey shore.best red wine for red meat "Albarino ... not given enough of a chance in the mid-Atlantic," he wrote in an email Wednesday. best of wine netherlands"Unionville made one for about 3 years and it was lovely, but the vineyard that we bought the fruit from, Atlantic Gardens in Cape May Co lost its financial backing and the vineyard is no longer tended. cheap wine red dresses Boordy has bucked the trend of a competition that largely has settled on red wines for its Best in Show winners. glass of wine instagram

It won in 2001 for its sweet Riesling called Eisling, and then in 2006 for its Vidal. The winery also won in 2010 with its Landmark Reserve, its premum red blend. Slideshow offers peek at Boordy Vineyards' past, present and futurewhere can i buy wine kits Since 2002, a red wine has won Best in Show 13 out of 14 years, with Boordy's Vidal in 2006 being the exception. "Given the very good quality of many reds now being produced in Maryland, it was something of a surprise that our Albarino won the show, but definitely not a disappointment!" "I think this confirms that the judging is not locked into a preordained outcome, but is on an earnest quest for the best wine. I believe Albarino has a very promising future in our region." Here's the list of Best in Class wines, including the Cup winner. Best White Blend: Turkey Point Vineyard * Lighthouse White 2015 (Cecil Co.)Best Rose: Crow Vineyard * 2015 Barbera Rose 2015 (Kent Co.)

Best Red: Catoctin Breeze Vineyard * Estate Cabernet Franc 2013 (Frederick Co.)Best Red Blend: Linganore Winecellars * Cabernet Reserve 2014 (Frederick Co.)Best Fruit: Big Cork Vineyards * Black Cap NV (Washington Co.)Best Cider: Great Shoals Winery * Hard Strawberry 2016 (Montgomery Co.)Best Dessert: Big Cork Vineyards * Vidal Ice 2014 (Washington Co.) You can find the full list of winners here. If you want to purchase the wine, you'll likely have to visit the winery north of Baltimore. Deford said that while Boordy has a Pennsylvania winery license, it doesn't plan for the moment to apply for a license to ship its wines. "We are currently licensed as a winery in PA since that is what previously required in order to ship wines to PA customers, of which we have many," he said. "The new law would be simpler, but there is an advantage to having a PA winery license in that we can participate in PA wine festivals, which helps promote our wines that are carried by the PLCB. So, our future direction is most likely to stay with the status quo."

With Paris about to succumb to football fever for a month, screens are going up in bars all over the city. So where’s best to soak up the Euros atmosphere? From 10 June to 10 July, Paris will be transformed into Europe’s capital of football as France hosts the Euro 2016 tournament. It will be big, of course, in the city’s numerous sports bars, Irish taverns and faux English pubs such as the Coq & Bulldog or the Frog et Rosbif, but every bistrot, bar and cafe will also be installing TV screens, not just for those cheering on Les Bleus, but for fans from abroad flooding into Paris and looking for places to watch their nation compete. Games will be shown on giant screens at a massive fan zone in the Champ-de-Mars by the Eiffel Tower, and Les Berges de l’Europe (the pedestrian banks of the Seine by the Pont de Solférino) will have concerts, food trucks and parties. Just be prepared for very strict security checks. but these 10 bars do have a genuine neighbourhood feel. Les Tontons Bringuers, 20th arrondissement

The cosmopolitan, buzzing Belleville and Ménilmontant quartiers are a gold mine for neighbourhood bars, cheap and cheerful bistrots and live music venues. The atmospheric Tontons Bringueurs is a mix of all three, and while owner Yves Barruet loves to project cult 1950s French thrillers on to a huge wall, the place swiftly converts into a sports bar once a big match kicks off. If a game coincides with the 5pm-10pm happy hour, Yves generously extends until the final whistle, while bar snacks range from hot dogs and bruschetta to roasted camembert with honey. Don’t miss the killer absinthe selection, plus more than 20 jars of rhum arrangé – rums infused with spices like ginger or cinnamon. After the match, catch an indie concert at either La Bellevilloise or La Maroquinerie, on the same street. • 1 rue Boyer, on Facebook The cosy Magellan is in a narrow sidestreet near where the November bomb attacks began, at the Carillon bar and Le Petit Cambodge. But this nightlife neighbourhood is as busy as it always was, and to be sure of bagging a seat on the Magellan’s comfy leather Chesterfield, get there at least an hour before the match.

Happy Hour is 6pm-8pm and is not suspended during games as is often the case in more classic sports bars. A generous plate of cheese and charcuterie is €10, and there is a good selection of Belgian beers. The laid-back local clientele run poker tournaments, and this is one of the rare spots in Paris to boast a dart board. The friendly owner/barman, Olivier Sayrou, admits he is more of a rugby fan, but expects big crowds during Euro 2016.• 12 rue des Goncourt, on Facebook The Pure Malt, 4th The fashionable Marais is home to one of Paris’s most famous Scottish pubs, the Auld Alliance. It still serves haggis and has half-a-dozen TV screens, but the Alliance is a shadow of its old self. A much better bet is to walk across the busy rue de Rivoli towards Place des Vosges to the snug Pure Malt. This is a genuine Scottish boozer, whose garrulous landlord Shep – Colin Shepherd from Aberdeen – opened in 2009 after he got fed up with working in themed Scottish bars that were run and mostly staffed by Frenchmen.

It stocks more than 100 pure malts, Brewdog ales and no food apart from packets of crisps. A sign outside prohibits hipsters, but that is just Shep teasing the tourists. Scotland may not have made it to Euro 2016, but there will still be a great atmosphere here for every match. • 4 rue Caron, thepuremalt.fr Off busy Boulevard Haussman, the funky Bambolina is known as the best bar in Paris for watching Italian soccer, and is a second home to the raucous Paris San Gennar, the local club for Napoli fans, along with Juventini, Milanistas and Interistas. The bar has featured in Italy’s sports daily, La Gazzetta dello Sport, and French TV crews regularly turn up to film during big matches. Around 60 people can cram into Bambolina, and though getting a seat when Italy is playing will not be easy, owner Andrea Conti guarantees an electric atmosphere for all the Euro 2016 games. Order a Bambolina spritz or chilled Peroni, then Andrea’s famous lasagne and homemade tiramisu.• 13 rue Rougemont, bambolinacaffe.fr

If you think watching an England match in a German bar is a bad idea - especially if the match goes to penalties – think again, as the friendly Titon is a surprising venue. It may serve curry wurst, pretzels, apple strudel and foaming steins of weissbier, but the bar is actually owned by a couple of Frenchmen, Joel and Stéphane, who fell in love with Germany during a holiday in Berlin and have created a one-off locale with a unique franco-allemande ambiance. So if France is playing, choose from the wide list of French organic wines and order a croque-monsieur or a steak tartare, followed by crème brûlée. There are dozens of places in which to watch Euro 2016 in this bustling corner of the 10th arrondissement, from a Turkish kebab joint to football-mad Algerian cafes. But if France is playing, head for this classic corner cafe, taken over a few months ago by two Parisian brothers, Arnaud and Xavier. Both big footie fans, they are putting in a big screen for the tournament, but Arnaud says it will disappear afterwards, because “we don’t want a bar with a TV where everyone looks at the screen, no one talks and no one listens to the music”.

The cafe serves craft beers, organic wines and traditional dishes such as beef cheeks or boudin noir blood sausage and mash.• 22 rue de Mazagran, on Facebook Patrick’s Le Ballon Vert, 11th Kieran Loughney and sons Donal and Kevin decamped from Dublin 10 years ago to found Patrick’s, for many people the best pub in Paris. You’ll find more Parisians here than noisy expats, and they come for draft Guinness, one of the world’s biggest selections of Irish whiskies – over 350 at the last count – dozens of Irish craft ales, and an unbeatable lunch menu at €10 for a juicy burger, fat hand-cut chips and a beer. There are three TVs surrounded by battered leather armchairs and velvet sofas, and for big matches, the end room is dominated by a huge roll-down screen. If Patrick’s gets too packed and noisy, another Loughney son runs the more relaxed Green Goose just up the road, with food more gastro than pub grub.• 33 rue de Montreuil, on Facebook This is a wonderfully preserved belle époque bistrot.

With its enormous bay windows, art nouveau mirrors and paintings, it’s an oasis amid the area’s tourist traps and sleazy strip clubs. But when it is time for a big match, the TV takes pride of place in front of the mirror and locals crowd in, along with a few curious tourists. Owner James Patou offers a wide choice of wines and draft beers, plates of charcuterie and cheese, plus classic plats du jour from his native Auvergne, such as veal roast with lentils or sausages with cheesy aligot mashed potatoes.• 7 rue des Trois-Frères, no website Belgium’s Red Devils are one of the favourites for Euro 2016, and plenty of Belgian bars in Paris will be screening matches. La Gueuze, named after the country’s lambic beer, is a lively student haunt right by the Sorbonne, handy for the Latin Quarter’s tourist attractions. There is La Mort Subite on draft, and bottles ranging from Trappist ales to fruity kriek (cherries) and framboise (raspberries), and a steaming plate of moules-frites will set you back €12.50.