Last month I had several people tell me that they would no longer patronize Wine in the Woods. This was a first. The annual celebration of Maryland wines held in Columbia’s Symphony Woods park has always been one of the most popular events in HoCo if not the entire Baltimore Washington corridor. I was more than a little surprised to hear so many negative reviews.
I’m a big fan and so when the event occurs on a weekend that I am out of town I’m bummed.That’s what happened this year we were out of town for the Wine in the Woods weekend attending CG’s college graduation. If we hadn’t been on the eastern shore we would’ve been sipping wines in the woods.
On Monday, when I asked friends how it went, more than half of those I spoke with told me that they did not enjoy themselves. Then I read the comments on Explore Howard where some compared the event to the infield at the Preakness. Then I spoke with the general manager of Clyde's who said that the number of drunks that stumbled into his establishment wearing the purple wristbands was worse than any prior year.
At first I thought they were simply overreacting. This year promised to be the biggest and best Wine in the Woods ever with 29 participating wineries. What could have possibly gone wrong?
I’m not sure. Not having been there I can’t say. What I was told was that the number of attendees who simply went to get drunk, and apparently succeeded, was more than in years past.
I am fairly certain that it wasn’t as bad as some folks said it was, it ever rarely is. That being said it does appear that this is something the organizers need to get on top of before the 20th annual celebration next May.
You can read this months column here.
