Old Westminster

Old Westminster winery has become probably the most popular winery in Maryland in recent years. Ian and I paid them a visit years ago and enjoyed some of their wines but that winery we visited is nothing like what it has grown to today. The story, popularity and wine is nothing short of impressive. In 2023, Cosmopolitan magazine and USA today were both calling Old Westminster a top winery in the United States, not just Maryland. So we had to get back to pay a visit to see what all of the hype was about. Planting their first 10,000 grapes with a loan from their grandfather in 2011, the three siblings that grew up on this property that was formerly a juniper farm, had a vision and were motivated to see it come to fruition. Combining their college educations with their father's carpentry expertise and mother's hospitality training, this winery started to come to life and now grows 50,000 grape vines at two different properties. They are also growing various other crops including grains and mushrooms to serve guests who visit the winery a fresh farm to table experience which includes their popular wood fired pizzas. There is a full list of things they are doing at this winery that makes them unique, interesting and innovative. I'll start with the first thing you notice when you arrive at the winery, the greenhouses. These cute little greenhouses are available to reserve for a more private experience, especially if you have something to celebrate with friends, family and loved ones. Reserve them as early as you can because they book up fast and are hard to come by if you aren't able to plan months in advance. You need a reservation at this point to enjoy wine and food pretty much anywhere at Old Westminster at this point. There is a members only space and then the veranda, which is where we were. All guests get a comfortable seat, table and server for the few hours of their reservation. They were serving four different dry wine flights for tasting so we worked our way through them all with two flights for each of us, starting with Just the Whites and Just for Fun. Just for Fun was just that featuring their Terracotta, Take me Home and Franc Fizz. None of these wines were necessarily our cup of tea but they were all very unique and interesting. I think these were the perfect example of how these winemakers are pushing the envelope and not shying away from trying anything new and different. Franc Fizz was my favorite of the three. It was made from 100% cabernet franc and fermented with native yeast in stainless steel. Take me Home was also effervescent and made mostly from apples. The Just the Whites flight was much more traditional and the star for me out of that flight was the  albarino. It was bright, acidic and had nice notes of peach, lime and orange. The sauvignon blanc based After Hours blend was also great. Just the Favs and Just Reds were next. Pepper is their cabernet franc forward blend that also has a little blaufrankish and chambourcin in it. We get why this one is a "fav." Blueberry, raspberry fruit plus white pepper and jaminess. The cabernet sauvignon was also excellent and we were bummed this one was for members only when buying our bottles at the end of our visit.  Most interestingly in this flight was the Solera Batch No. 3. They are making a port style wine using a solera system. I don't know that any other winery in Maryland has a solera system. It's most commonly used in Spain to make sherry and added a great complexity to this dessert wine. We finished out our visit trying the last style of wine Old Westminster is doing that very few others in Maryland are, the Pet Nat Albarino. This nutty, toasty sparkling wine is interestingly being made using native yeast, started in the tank and finished in the bottle. Of course we enjoyed some wood fired pizza, the pineapple and prosciutto, and left with some canned rose in addition to our bottles. Old Westminster was first in Maryland to make and sell canned wines so our first outdoorsy adventure of 2024 will be paired with some lovely local rose. Congrats to Old Westminster on all of their accomplishments and we look forward to seeing more as we don't get the impression they are close to done.