A MOMENT WITH MELISSA – JUNE 2025

Another few months have passed, and there’s a lot of updates to share! First, let’s talk about everyones favorite topic: the weather. We’ll head back to January and February where our vineyard saw low temperatures below zero for the first time in several years. Once the buds started to pop in mid-April, it was clear that those chilly temps left lasting damage, specifically in some of the newly planted Barbera and Pinot Gris (←yep, coming soon!) vines. We’ll have to replant a decent portion of those next spring. Speaking of spring, we had an earlier than normal budbreak, which gives us a longer growing season to ripen all our grapes fully, but extends the frost risk period by several weeks. This year, we were hit with a few frosts, and though we tried to mitigate the effects with our frost fans, we did see some damage in our lower-lying vineyards. Fortunately, those vines have bounced back a bit and will still be able to produce a limited crop this year.

Maybe the most important weather aspect to chat about would be the excessive rain we’ve seen in the last 45 days. We’ve received almost double the rainfall this year in May and June than in 2024, and although we are no longer classified in drought conditions, intense and frequent rain like we’ve had puts a lot of stress on Eric and Parker as they try to mitigate early season rots and mildews which can decrease photosynthesis, yield, and ultimately, the top-notch quality we strive to achieve. At this point, we’d be glad if it didn’t rain again until November (grapes like the drought – more on that later!) So, if anyone knows an anti-rain dance, please share it with us!

Excitingly, in mid-April we gently broke ground on our new Simple Theory Vineyard location in Mount Airy, nurturing an old corn field into a site ready for a vineyard. We now have 5 acres of new no-spray and low-spray varieties from Germany and Italy gently nestled into the ground: Merlot Kanthus, Cabernet Volos, Helois, Johanister, and Monarch. Though new to us, we are thrilled to work with them in a few years when they start producing – and we can’t wait to share the experiment with you. 

Our Downtown Tasting Lounge has continued to be a blast of enjoyment as we meet new faces everyday and chill out with our regulars over a glass of wine and a bite to eat. We also offered our first Locavore event in May partnering with Perfect Truffle to showcase how what grows together goes together. We are excited to bring back Wine 101, introduce Wine 201, host a vineyard dinner, pair our wines with South Mountain Creamery‘s ice cream, Atwater’s cheese and hopefully some oysters, and provide a relaxed, approachable lounge with Music Mondays and Sunday Trivia. Oh, and we have a few new wines to share this summer – come visit us, cool off, and continue to explore our Maryland wines. Thank you to everyone for your continued support, and we cant wait to host you again soon!