Still Growing
Viticulture in Washington County’s farm vineyards keeps getting better
By Charles Jeffries
In 2008 Gretchen Simard got tired of teaching in Virginia and made an unusual career switch. She got her contractor’s license and began remodeling homes. Her business was going along fine, but she uprooted her life again to move to Washington County to start a new life with her fiancée, who owns two farms. Now she’s on to the next segment of her life.
Three years ago, she planted the first vines at The Vineyards of Mapleville Manor and then broke ground on an event center, which will include what she describes as a wedding barn.
“It will be very European,” she says. “It will look like a barn on the outside, but it will be a very exquisite place for weddings on the inside.”
She hopes to have the complex open later this summer and that her wedding will be the first the venue hosts. She hopes to start booking weddings for the fall and 2025. For now, she also has her hands full with the vineyard near Stottlemeyer Road north of Boonsboro. “I’ve spent seven days a week out there for the last two summers,” she says.
In that time she’s learned that growing wine grapes is not as simple as planting vines and watching them flower and produce fruit.
The progress at the Vineyards of Mapleville Manor of
setting the posts for trellising.
“Growing grapes is full of a multitude of challenges and requires the dedication of someone willing to work on growing grapes almost every day all spring, summer, and fall,” she says. “Even then, it is not a sure thing, as grapes are a sensitive crop.”
Indeed. Growing Vitis vinifera, the species of grape used to make quality wine, in the Middle Atlantic has been hundreds of years of failure. Although that is changing as viticultural experts start applying science to the process and experimenting with varietals that might adapt to the soil and climate conditions of the region. For much of the past vineyard owners have just planted European varietals and hoping to make European-style wine.
Simard has planted some traditional grapes like Cabernet Franc and Malbec but, interestingly, she’s trying some new varietals, hybrid grapes bred for terroir similar to that of Washington County. Not many will recognize the varietal Chelois, a late-budding, early ripening red grape that will have a better chance of avoiding potential damage from both spring frosts and fall rain. She has also planted Diamond, a white grape bred in 1855, which is having success in the Finger Lakes region of New York where it produces still and sparkling wine. The varietal hasn’t migrated far from upstate New York, so Simard is one of the few to plant the grape in the Middle Atlantic.
She will also feature a much more recently developed hybrid from New York. Aravelle, also known as New York 81 for the year it was bred. Aravelle is a cross of Cayuga, another successful Finger Lakes grape, and Riesling, a white grape that makes world-class wines in the Alsace region of France.
Joe Fiola, a specialist in viticulture at the University of Maryland Extension, has been working with Simard and many other vineyards in Maryland and has been testing these grapes’ viability around Maryland and in Washington County.
“I have had them in trial at multiple sites around Maryland [including the Western Maryland Research and Education Center in Keedysville] and they have proven to be cold hardy and disease resistant, two critical issues when sustainably growing grapes in Maryland,” Fiola says.
Simard is betting that he’s right.
“Our goal is to eventually produce our own estate wines and specialize in sparkling wines,” Simard says. “That goes along with weddings. Brides can come in and do a tasting of sparkling wines and decide what they want for their wedding.”
In the beginning, she will have her wine made by an outside production facility. Like many such projects, Simard’s is costing more than she expected, but eventually she hopes to have a production facility and tasting room.
The process of growing the young vines and nurturing them into growing grapes.
“Our building that is going to host exquisite weddings is going up now. Our event center will host weddings and will eventually become our winery and tasting room,” she says.
Try a Bottle of Something Different
There are four farm vineyards in Washington County open for tastings or just enjoying a glass or a bottle (some are by appointment only). Each has spent time studying the local terroir and discovered there are grapes other than standard varietals that can grow well here. Here’s something a little different from each of them.
Cool Spring Vineyard: Gruner Veltliner is the most significant white grape in Austria. At Cool Spring it delivers a light, acidic wine with aromas of citrus zest and notes of stone fruit and spice on the palate.
Antietam Creek Vineyard: Vidal Blanc is a hybrid white grape proven to survive cold winters and produce high sugar levels in cooler growing climates. (Despite our sometimes oppressively hot summers, Maryland is a cool-weather climate in viticultural terms.) Antietam makes this in an off-dry style with notes of honeysuckle and lychee.
Big Cork Vineyard: The flagship wine here is made with the spectacular Italian grape called Nebbiolo, where in its spiritual home of the Italian piedmont it produces world-class wines like Borola and Barbaresco. Big Cork’s version might not reach those heights, but its strong tannins and complexity make it perhaps Washington County’s best red.
Red Heifer Vineyard: Blaufrankisch is an Eastern European grape and makes elegant light- to medium-bodies reds in Hungary. Red Heifer’s Winemaker’s Reserve Blaufrankisch is fruit forward with red fruit on the palate and an earthy, herbaceous finish.