Crow Vineyard

Formerly a dairy farm owned by Roy Crow's family for three generations going back to the early 1900's, this farm is currently owned by Roy and his wife, Judy. It is a cattle farm and winery, that also boasts a bed and breakfast. When you stay at the B&B, you get the opportunity to work the farm during your stay for a unique experience at this Eastern Shore property. Of course,  you can also taste some wine. Known over the last 10 years or so since they opened the winery for their vidal and barbera varietals, you can also taste grapes like chardonnay and pinot gris in a guided, seated flight while visiting. They opened the winery in May 2012 and just recently got to their goal of growing all of their grapes on their property in 2022. Their hay barn tasting room was just recently renovated in 2023 and sets a lovely, rustic and relaxing atmosphere for enjoying a glass, bottle or flight during a visit. Occasionally, they will have music or educational wine seminars but most often host chef dinners with wine pairings, some of which are with a chef who "Beat Bobby Flay." They have won Governor's Cup medals the last four years, most recently taking home a silver for their 2021 malbec. Be sure to leave with a few pounds of beef. The list of cuts to choose from is comprehensive and the quality for their grass-fed, black angus beef is excellent. During our most recent visit we enjoyed the  red flight which starts off with three different barbera's - a sparkling rose, a still rose and a red. We did a bottle review podcast on the site for the red barbera full of all of the tasting notes on that so I'll give the notes in this article on the sparkling rose. It was bubbly, full of tart strawberry and raspberry fruit flavor and had great minerality on the finish. The remaining reds in the flight were merlot,  malbec and cabernet franc. The merlot stood out with great black fruit and spice. It was a deep purple color with medium acidity and medium-high tannin. The plum, blackberry, cherry, cinnamon, vanilla and cocoa were all great in this complex red. I didn't feel like I could leave without trying the vidals so I added the sparkling and the off dry version to the tasting flight. I remembered the sparkling vidal from the Maryland Wine Festival back in September. It got a lot of attention and was one of the first wines they ran out of people liked it so much. It had nice floral aromas and flavors of stone fruit and honey. We will be tasting the still, off dry vidal in our upcoming vertical vidal tasting with food pairings soon so I'll save the notes for that article. Last thing to mention is the beef I left with! It was the day before the superbowl so the number one cut I needed was a 3 pound brisket. I thawed and  seasoned it that night and slow cooked it, Kansas City style, for three hours on Superbowl Sunday. It was perfection. I also left with a few pounds of short ribs for another tasting we are planning to do soon so to be continued! I think the main takeaway from our experiences with this winery as this was our second visit is it is, interestingly, not just a winery. You could spend a whole day or even weekend here and enjoy so many of the different things they have to offer. Check them out when you get a chance.