Basignani
Basignani Winery is another winery that has been around for quite a while in Maryland. Starting by making wine at home in his own garage, continuing the tradition of his Italian grandparents, Bert Basignani opened his commercial winery in 1986. Originally getting his grapes from Philip Wagner like so many wineries at the time, and learning from esteemed wine makers at the time like Ham Mowbray and Al Copp, he started out making four wines to sell: cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay, Marisa and seyval. These were from grapes Bert planted eventually on his own in 1974 and has been doing ever since. The winery still makes and sells these four wines, in addition to so many more including sparkling, vidal blanc and their popular white blend, Elena. Known for naming bottles like Marisa and Elena after their children, along with their brick oven pizzas made on site under the supervision of Bert, Basignani is a local gem located up in Harford County. They regularly hold events like their Summer Saturday Night Music and Friday Night Cafes, in addition to their annual Tuscan Christmas. We first attended a Tuscan Christmas in December 2021. We went home with complimentary Reidel wine glasses after enjoying a premium tasting of everything from sparkling to chardonnay to chambourcin. We sat at a table in the pavilion enjoying glasses, a delicious mushroom pizza, complimentary cookies and biscotti while listening to live Christmas music. It was a lovely way to kick off the season and we have been attending the event since. This year we attended the noon session on December 9th. We started with our premium tastings which included Elena, the newly released chardonnay, Marisa and vidal. Our hostess was even kind enough to let us try some seyval and piccolo while we were trying to decide which bottles to get. After our tasting, we decided on some piccolo and cabernet sauvignon to bring out to the covered pavilion. Live Christmas music was happening in one corner and complimentary cookies, cider and snacks were available in another corner. We ordered our pizzas and enjoyed the rest of the session eating, drinking and having a lovely time with the other guests and friends in attendance. Another holiday season was started off right with the help of this winery and their festive event.
