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Whisperer
Because the grapes were
experimental varieties with odd
names unknown by nearly anyone
but Fiola himself, Fiola says many
area winemakers shied away from
using them.
“Growers would quickly lose
interest because they didn’t think
they could sell or put ‘XIV186’ on
the label,” he said. “They thought it
would be difficult.”
Fiola points out that grapes
are unique in this respect. “Most
wineries like to have ‘Chardonnay’
on the label, ‘Riesling’ on it,
‘Cabernet,’ because the wine
industry is one industry where
people really do recognize varietal
names, as opposed to no one
knows most names of strawberries
or peach varieties, but with grapes
they know Cabernet Sauvignon;
they know Chardonnay.”
Finally, Dave Collins, the
winemaker at Big Cork Vineyards in Rohrersville, was so impressed by the wine
produced by Fiola’s grapes that he decided to take a chance and make his own
wine out of them. He subsequently entered the wine, which he called Russian
Kiss, into the Indianapolis International Wine Competition, and it took home
double gold.
“It was the second-highest scoring wine in the competition,” said Fiola with
pride. “I think he has close to seven or eight acres of them right now growing.”
And that’s basically what Fiola does.
“I have a research project where I plant grape varieties in various locations
around the state. As you know, Maryland’s a pretty diverse state when you go from
west to east. It can be like as cold as being in Russia in the western part and like
being in the tropics in southern Maryland, so I have specific locations where I do
variety trials,” he explained.
Fiola searches the globe for areas producing great wine in climates similar to
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