Summer Is Here! Let’s Make It Great.

Ready For Summer? We Are.

June is a super busy time on Old Westminster Road. The vineyard, winery and tasting room are all bustling with activity. We want to share some of these happenings with you and also to thank you for being the absolute best customers, friends and family out there! So, here’s the latest in our endeavors to make this the best summer yet...

The Vineyard

The vines are growing vigorously skyward, the grape clusters are in full bloom and the chores seem endless. Our team has spent the past few weeks hand-planting the new Ribolla Gialla vines! RG is a grape variety I fell in love with last spring when my wife and I visited Northeast Italy. It makes beautiful wines in many styles – bright, aromatic wines fermented in steel, richly textured wines fermented in oak, and of course, delicious bubbly. We're the first to plant it in Maryland, and I have many reasons to believe it will make absolutely gorgeous wines from our greenstone soils.

Then there are the mature vines. We’ve been tirelessly removing suckers, positioning shoots between the trellis wires and removing leaves adjacent to clusters to expose them to the sun and breeze – nature’s antibiotics. We think a bottle of wine will reflect our efforts… At least that’s what we tell ourselves!

The Winery

Then there’s the cellar, where we’re preparing many new wines for bottling. Lisa is racking the reds from the French oak barrels where they’ve rested for the past year and a half, to the tanks in the exact proportions to make up our blends. We determined these blends through many hours of tasting, deliberation and consensus over the quiet winter months. The white wines are being moved from tank to tank leaving behind only the lees.

Important note: These wines will be bottled without fining or filtration. This is a move we are making to offer wine drinkers a more authentic product. One without any makeup. Lisa does things a bit differently – and hopefully better – every passing year because she’s always learning and challenging the status quo. We hope you’ll enjoy this latest revelation.

The Tasting Room

We believe that the only way to truly appreciate great wine is through a personal experience. So, come spend a relaxing, fun-filled evening on the farm! Every Friday from May – October is #FoodTruckFriday! We have a local food truck on site from 5-10 PM slinging local fare to complement our delicious wines and live music by talented musicians. This all in addition to our year-round Saturdays & Sundays from 12-5 PM. So dust off your lawn chairs and join us in the country!

Thank You

Lastly, we want to say thank you to our loyal customers. We consider you all friends. It’s an absolute honor to spend every day doing what we love -- to make your summer even better. Your appreciation and encouragement has been overwhelming over the years and we would not be here without each one of you.

We can’t wait to see you all at Old Westminster Winery & Vineyard this summer!