The Wine Collective

Recently voted one of Baltimore's Best by Baltimore Magazine, this relatively new cooperative is making great wine from local grapes all within 100 miles of the Baltimore location. We finally got the time to check them out on a Saturday in August 2024. They are conveniently located in a large warehouse type facility right next to Union Brewery. You get to cozy up in this room that is part bar, part winemaking facility, part tapas restaurant. There is this perfect balance of tables, bar stools, steel tanks and oak barrels throughout the room where you can do a combination of tasting flights, glasses, bottles, tapas and wine snacks. They are also currently making their own vermouth and have a wine based cocktail menu. We each got flights of 4 different wines so we could taste through what they have currently. The favorites were the sparkling brut nature, viognier, and red blends, Wizard and Peregrine. The 2020 Wizard is a blend of merlot, cabernet sauvignon, petit verdot and syrah and has great dark fruits with a peppery finish. The 2019 Peregrine is named after a falcon and is a blend of cabernet franc and cabernet sauvignon. It was spicy with licorice, cocoa and vanilla on the palate. Vermu dry is their dry vermouth and it was a little bitter and complex with great notes of lavendar and chamomille. We  stayed here for a few hours, tasting and chatting with the staff working and were treated well. As always, they had to put up with our nosy questions and seemed happy to do so. Their winemaker's name is John and he is doing an excellent job. A lot of their grapes are imported from Tarara Winery in Northern Virginia and Libertas in Mount Airy, Maryland. There is a room you can rent on site for private events and parties. Check them out!