Six Wicket

Six Wicket Vineyards is located in Myersville, Maryland and owned by Kathy and Ed O'Laughlin since they started this winery in 2014. Ed is a retired anesthesiologist and Nancy a retired registered nurse from the Cockeysville area. Their stunning 35-acre property boasts over 20,000 vines, a croquet court and fabulous views of the mountains. We made an appointment to visit on a Saturday afternoon and could not have enjoyed our time there more. We started by meeting Kathy who opened the fence and showed us to the tasting room which is a big, enclosed porch area attached to their house that has great views of both the mountains and the perfectly manicured vineyards. She told us about the winery which already has a rich story and conducted our tasting. Six Wickets Vineyards we learned is not only making their own wines, but they are supplying grapes to a handful of Maryland's most popular wineries, including Catoctin Breeze and Port of Leonardtown. The winery is named after an Egyptian version of croquet that uses six wickets. They host a tournament once a year so get on the list if you want an invite. The property used to be a dairy farm so the rocky soil was determined to be pretty perfect for a vineyard. Jesse, the winemaker, we saw briefly on his way out and the workers that have been with the vineyard from day one are a great family from El Salvador. You can tell just by looking at the vineyard that they are doing an amazing job. The first wine in the tasting was our favorite, the Albarino. It was crisp and high acid with notes of peach, lime, cantaloupe and ginger. There were two cabernet francs, one aged in American oak and one aged 18 months in Slovenian oak. The cab franc aged in American oak had more of those earthy, vanilla notes like cedar and leather. The Slovenian was more floral and had more fruit. After our tasting concluded we were excited to be invited to get in a golf cart with Ed and take a tour of the property. He showed us the cab franc vines we just tasted and how they are using the leaves to shade the sunnier side of the vines and leave the less sunny side open to get as much as possible. We saw views from the most scenic parts of the property and even got a crash course in how to play croquet. We  could not have enjoyed our visit more and left in the best mood. Make an appointment and get out to visit this winery and meet these lovely owners, especially in the fall when they will be releasing their teroldego and petit verdot! It sounds like they will be at the Maryland Wine Festival in September, as well.