Old Westminster Winery

Nestled in Carroll County, Maryland’s rolling countryside, Old Westminster Winery is the Baker family’s project to preserve their family farm and put their land to work to craft distinctive wines with a sense of place. They set out in the spring of 2011 by planting Cabernet Franc, Syrah, Chardonnay, and Albariño in their Home Vineyard at 800ft elevation on channery loam soils overlaying a bedrock of greenstone schist. In addition to their own vines, Old Westminster works closely with neighboring vineyards to source fruit from a variety of soil types and expositions, allowing them to represent the region’s diverse geologies and variable climate. In the vineyards, they implement a pragmatic farming program using environmentally sound materials; mostly organic (and even experimenting with biodynamics), but also synthetic when it's known to be more effective and less intrusive for Maryland’s demanding climate. Drew Baker, who handles the vineyard work, systematically rotates sprays to avoid resistance and reduce the volume of necessary applications and utilizes diverse cover crops to promote beneficial insects and vines with stronger immune systems that need fewer inputs. In the winery as well, the goal is to produce wines that reflect both the vineyard and vintage with minimal additions. Drew’s sister, Lisa Hinton, who handles winemaking duties, achieves this by hand-picking and sorting the fruit, using gravity rather than pumps, fermenting all wines with indigenous yeast, and bottling without fining or filtration. They are also experimenting with carbonic maceration, skin-contact whites, and pét-nats, have gone all-in on a delicious set of piquette and wine-piquette blends, and have even produced the first true natural wines in can! Through the Baker family's collective expertise, meticulous vineyard care, and thoughtful cellar practices, they have already managed to produce distinctive wines that are a pleasure to drink and are putting Maryland wine on the world map.