EATER
April 29, 2025
“9 Exciting Restaurant Openings to Look Forward to Around D.C.” | Emily Venezky
An annual food festival previews new culinary destinations, and Chef Tae Strain—formerly of Momofuku CCDC—is one to watch. In recent years, he’s gained acclaim for his produce-driven Ggoma Supper Club and collaborative dinners throughout Maryland and D.C. Now, the chef with deep farming roots has found his ideal home in partnership with a family-run winery and regenerative farm in Clarksburg, Maryland.
Strain took the helm at Old Westminster Winery’s kitchen in March and will also lead the culinary program at the nearby 100-acre Burnt Hill Farm. The farm is set to open its wine tasting room in August, followed by the launch of a restaurant and private chef’s table experience.
Baltimore Magazine
April 28, 2025
“Ushering in a New Culinary Era” | Lydia Woolever
As the family-run winery approaches its 15th anniversary, we caught up with the team to talk about Chef Tae Strain’s new menu and the highly anticipated restaurant opening at Burnt Hill—their 100-acre regenerative farm in Clarksburg, Maryland.
Strain now serves as culinary director at Old Westminster and will later this year step into the role of executive chef-partner at Burnt Hill, a visionary farm-to-table restaurant and organic winery set amid rolling farmland about an hour outside of Baltimore. For the family, the addition of Strain and the launch of Burnt Hill represent a natural evolution—an ambitious new chapter built on everything that’s come before.
“Looking back on the last 15 years, to when we really got started,” says co-owner Andrew Baker, “I feel such a sense of pride in where we are and where we’re going—because I’m always reminded of where we came from.”
Wine Enthusiast
April 22, 2025
“Is Local Wood the Key to Terroir? Some American Winemakers Say ‘Yes’” | AMY BETH WRIGHT
Back in the U.S., Andrew Baker—co-owner of Old Westminster Winery in Maryland—led a conservation-driven project at its sister estate, Burnt Hill Farm, a hillside vineyard known for its historic hardwoods.
“With the emerald ash borer decimating ash trees across the region, we wanted to honor and preserve what we could,” says Baker, who partnered with Missouri-based Foeder Crafters of America in 2018 to design a custom barrel using removed ash and oak from the property.
“Ash imparts subtle notes of forest floor—mushroom, soil—and lends a soft texture that reflects the wood’s natural character and microbiology,” adds winemaker and co-owner Lisa Hinton. Looking ahead, Baker hopes to harvest estate black cherry, elm, and mid-Atlantic hickory to craft new aging vessels that continue to express the vineyard’s distinctive terroir.
Edible DC
April 20, 2019
“MARYLAND’S FIRST NATURAL WINE FESTIVAL CELEBRATES THE BEGINNING OF SUMMER” | Jessica Wolfrom
Winemakers from across the world gathered under a giant tent in Clarksburg, Maryland to celebrate Summer Solstice, a natural wine festival put on by Drew Baker and his sisters, Lisa Hinton, and Ashli Johnson of Old Westminster Winery.
Maryland isn't considered an epicenter for the natural wine movement, but this is starting to change.
“If you were to tell me that something like this would have happened when I moved here last year,” said Eric Moorer of Domestique, a natural wine shop in D.C., “I don’t know if I would have necessarily believed you.”
The Washington Post
May 10, 2019
“Can Maryland produce an iconic red wine? One maker is determined to find out.” | Dave McIntyre
The John Deere chugged along the hillside, guided by GPS, in a precise line five degrees to the northeast. Its plow churned up the rocky soil, while two people in the back of the tractor fed vines into a contraption that resembled two Ferris wheels. The contraption then turned downward toward the center, planting the vines a few feet apart.
It was twilight, April 25, the fourth day of planting at Burnt Hill Farm, the new vineyard of Old Westminster Winery near Clarksburg, Md., in northern Montgomery County. This patch of hillside was the last of 13 acres planted with approximately 20,000 vines…
The Washington Post
June 17, 2017
“Before the vines go in, it’s busy down on THE farm” | Dave McIntyre
The hole was six feet deep, and despite the symbolism, I was eager to jump in. This wasn’t a final resting place, but a soil pit carved in a hillside in upper Montgomery County that in a few years will become one of Maryland’s top vineyards. Crouching in the dirt, I could see grass roots reaching deep into the soil, and crumbling rock called phyllite that spoke of centuries of evolution and decay. It was a visual representation of what wine lovers call terroir.
The Washington Post
January 14, 2017
“How does a top-rated winery in Maryland get even better? Buy a farm.” | Dave McIntyre
The alert popped up on Drew Baker’s phone one Sunday morning in July. A 117-acre parcel of farmland near Clarksburg in northern Montgomery County, Md., had come on the market. And he recognized the address.
“We had already looked in that area, so we knew it was promising,” says Baker, vineyard manager for Old Westminster Winery in Westminster, Md. “My wife and I went there, saw the site and immediately dropped a pin,” he says, referring again to his phone…