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The Montgomery County fair will soon get a little more upscale with the introduction of wine-tasting and wine-making exhibitions on the heels of a state law permitting wineries to showcase their vino at the nine-day event.

By year's end, the state will have 36 wineries, according to the Maryland Wineries Association. State law allows them three permits to attend three-day events within their own county and three permits to attend three-day events outside the county, said a local vineyard owner.

Early this month, the General Assembly passed a bill sponsored by Sen. Nancy J. King (D-Dist. 39) of Montgomery Village authorizing the Office of the Comptroller to issue a winery special event permit to Class 4 Maryland limited wineries for use throughout the nine-day event. Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) signed the bill April 14.

"We think grape growing is an important crop and we think it's important to share with our community that grape growing is going on in Montgomery County," said Marty Svrcek, executive director of the Montgomery County Agricultural Center in Gaithersburg, which hosts the annual fair.

For years, the fair has had an amateur wine-making contest. Svrcek said the fair board is discussing wine tasting and how to do it effectively. A wine-making demonstration seems certain.

"I'd say that there is a possibility that we could develop a program by August," he said. "… If we're not able to do it in 2009, it's something that we think is important enough to continue to work on and research in 2010."

Kathy O'Donoghue, co-owner of Sugarloaf Mountain Vineyard in Dickerson, may participate in the fair. The county's only vineyard produces two white grapes used in its pinot grigio and chardonnay, and five Bordeaux grapes, she said. Last week, her family and staff finished hand-pruning 20,000 grapevines and bottling 4,000 cases of wine.

"We are agriculture, we are farmers, we have tractors. We watch the heat and the rain as other farmers do," she said. She's considering how to tell that story at the fair.