UNITY -- If you want to talk about wine, Clem Blakney is your man. Ask him a simple question about grapes or wines or bottles, and 10 minutes later, he'll have answered it in five parts.

Blakney owns the Unity Winery and Vineyard with his wife, Jeri, and he clearly loves the process of turning a field into a vineyard. He'll tell you how wine is great for reducing the chances of cancer, and how refreshing a chilled bottle is on a hot summer day.

"Wine should be for enjoying, and not examining," Blakney said.

The Blakneys received their federal license a week ago to sell their first label, "Tickled Pink." The Blakneys are now accepting pre-orders for the wine on their Web site (www.unitywinery.com) for $12 a bottle, with a 20-percent discount on cases.

"We've been getting the wine out without the label," Clem Blakney said. "We've got restaurants all over that want it. There are five restaurants in (Washington) D.C. that want it. It helps to have family. My daughter's a fantastic pastry chef down in D.C., and she's (brought it out) down there."

Blakney said Tickled Pink will be available hopefully by Thanksgiving, but definitely by Christmas. It's a cranberry wine, and Blakney estimates this autumn's batch will be about 500 gallons, enough for 2,500 bottles of wine.

"It is like cranberry juice with a kick," Blakney said. "It's not real sweet. It's got a sweet mid-flavor and it finishes dry. When you put it in your mouth, it's got a zing to it."

The winery also has other products in the works. Blakney is also hoping to have a cranberry spread available for Thanksgiving. It will be made from the must -- the juice from the grapes before fermenting -- off the top of the wine, with a few spices added, and it could be used on things like toast and bagels. Blakney is calling it "A Wicked Must."

"Normally (the must) is not palatable," Blakney said. "With cranberry wine, it's very palatable."

Blakney also plans to have two white-grape wines out for the spring: A rhubarb version called Rhuby Slippers, and a dandelion blend called Sunny Side Up, complete with a plate of dandelions on the label (as opposed to a plate of eggs).

The vineyard is about a mile and change down the road from Unity College, and the college liked the idea of being able to give special visitors a bottle of wine made from grapes grown right in Unity. Rob Constantine, the vice president for advancement at Unity College, said students and faculty members have lent hands in planting the vineyard.

"There's been a recognition and a movement on driving home the point that we used to grow our food on the farm and then eat it," Constantine said. "Unity College has a growing national reputation, and we're trying to get the area to grow with us."

Blakney also found a kindred spirit, so to speak, when he went looking for a sponsor for the balloons he put up in conjunction with this weekend's Common Ground Fair.

The balloons help keep birds and other grape-eating animals away, and Blakney wanted to promote his business. He was able to get Down East Credit Union to put its logo on the balloons, and said one of his first conversations with someone at the credit union was with Linda Howe, the senior vice president in charge of marketing and public relations.

"She says, 'Let me tell you what my license plate says: Get Vino,'" Blakney recalled. "So talk about preaching to the choir!"