Maryland Wine and a Sense of Place

“If we don’t make mistakes daily, we aren’t pushing the boundary and challenging the system enough.” - Antonio J. Lucio

Running a vineyard isn’t easy. We’ve heard some of the romantic ideas out there. Buy some land, plant some vines, and then relax on the porch beneath a dazzling sunset. All while sipping on a glass of your own delicious wine. Like a Tuscan tycoon.

Dream on. The wine business is arduous with a lot of unforeseen twists and turns. The ground only yields to hard-working hands. There are no shortcuts for producers that are bent on the best. It’s a long road with a lot of challenges along the way.

The reality of it is years of toil before a single wine is bottled, old-school farm work all year ‘round, a metric ton of paperwork, the task of branding in a highly competitive niche, the right kind of distribution choices, and convincing the world that your wine is exceptional.

But we’d be lying if we didn’t say it’s all worth it. Especially here in Maryland. Viticulture has been here since 1648. There’s something captivating about the responsibility of carrying that legacy on in a way that redeems many misgivings about Maryland wine.

"Wine being among the earliest luxuries in which we indulge ourselves, it is desirable it should be made here and we have every soil, aspect and climate of the best wine countries, and I have myself drank wines made in ... Maryland, of the quality of the best Burgundy."  - Thomas Jefferson, October 1, 1811.

And for us it isn’t about settling for any kind of status quo. And it isn’t about turning a buck. It’s about forging a new image for Maryland wine and earning respect in a meritocracy where criticism can be so unforgiving.

But we’re up for it. We’re bent on setting the bar high in Maryland. Come, taste and see what our hard-working hands can do.