Edible DC
June 23rd, 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…