Loew Vineyards

Where to start with Loew Vineyards. This is such a rich and interesting vineyard and  family. Bill and Lois purchased the 37 acre vineyard in 1982 and got their vines, like so many other wineries at the time from Philip Wagner. See the Boordy Vineyards article for more on him. The first harvest was in 1986 and today, two generations later, granddaughter Rachel Lipman is running things and making award winning wines. She has degrees in plant science and communications from the University of Maryland and also an internship at an organic vineyard in the Loire Valley of France, among other education and experience, which includes growing up in the Loew family on a vineyard. But the Loew family's wine story goes back much farther than 1982. The Loew's had meaderies all over Poland and Ukraine dating as far back as 1870. Malka and Meilech established the first meadery and grew this empire while also raising 12 children. This family and business thrived until World War II. The Holocaust destroyed the business and almost the entire family. William (Wolf) Loew was the only survivor. After recovering, he moved to the United States, worked and went to school to become an electrical engineer. He also married Lois and they had three daughers. Starting with winemaking at home as a hobby, he eventually made some pretty good wine and started looking for land for what is now Loew Vineyards. Today this vineyard is very much thriving. They have been featured as the local buy on the show Maryland Farm & Harvest. Their mead, Tribute Series: Klara received gold and best in class awards at the 2022 Maryland Governor's Cup. Rachel has appeared on Fox 5 DC's morning show in early 2024. Ian and I had been to Loew for a visit a number of years ago but felt we needed to get back and taste some of the wines that are getting all of this attention. On March 9, we had the pleasure of sitting back in the tank room while a number of wines were poured for us to taste. We started with the newly released celebration rose. It had medium acidity with an interesting oily mouthfeel and  flavors of banana, strawberry and bubblegum. Next was the Gruner Veltliner. This is a wine they make as a nod to their austrian/polish roots. Their first meadery was opened in the Austro-Hungarian empire. It was high in acidity, with flavors of lime, melon, banana, pear and a nice minerality. The Tribute Series, Margalit had bitter, grapefruit flavors, the chardonnay had some nice oakiness. The first red we tried was the Barbera Nouveau. Cranberry, cherry and cinnamon were the dominant flavors. The Posterity is a blend of 75% cabernet franc and 25% barbera. This was from 2021 so it had some age on it and spent some time in the barrel. Leather, rosemary, cherry and nice earthiness in this one. The cabernet franc was also earthy with notes of oregano, raspberry and pepper. The  earthiest was definitely the Tribute Series, Wolfgang. We got leather, white pepper, currant, barn door and strong tannins. This was a blend of mostly petit verdot and chancellor. We were very impressed by our visit and our tastings. Check out this Maryland wine OG and you won't be disappointed.