Makers & Growers
Here you will find information about the creative and hardworking owners of wineries, breweries and distilleries across Maryland. You’ll also find farmers and makers who offer value-added dairy and milk products, honey, CBD infusions, and so much more.
Catoctin Breeze’s Prize-Winning Wines
By: Christine Grillo FROM IRON CURTAIN TO Gold Medal THE FIZYTA FAMILY’S ROUNDABOUT ROUTE TO AWARD-WINNING CATOCTIN BREEZE VINEYARD It’s been said that cabernet sauvignon is the king of all grapes. And there are those who say that if sauvignon is the king, then cabernet franc is the queen. The grape, says Voytek Fizyta, “provides […]
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Farmed Fruit
VITICULTURE TO VINIFICATION When Robert Butz and his wife Cathy began to look into growing grapes about 10 years ago, the idea was simply to add another crop to the family farm. Butz and his three brothers raise corn, soybeans, wheat, and hay on some 1,200 acres in Montgomery and Frederick counties for the family’s […]
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Moonshine on the Horizon
TROPICAL MOONSHINE Puerto Rico is known for rum. The island is, after all, called “The Rum Capital of the World,” and some 70 percent of the rum consumed in the U.S. comes from our territory in the Caribbean. Much harder to find on the mainland is pitorro, or moonshine rum, a potent, flavor-infused spirit beloved […]
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Oysters and Booze
A TRUE CHESAPEAKE BELIEVER Chelsea Gregoire believes that her education at Liberty University, the Virginia school founded by evangelical pastor Jerry Falwell, was fine preparation for her career in the hospitality industry. “If you look into the etymology of the church, as a house of welcoming and fellowship, a restaurant or bar comes close,” Gregoire […]
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Eastern Shore Agave
SPIRIT OF THE WOLF The first rule of American craft agave spirits is don’t call it tequila. Only spirits made from the blue agave plant and made in certain regions of Mexico can be so labeled. But Meghan Brown and R. B. Wolfensberger, the Annapolis couple behind Maryland’s first agave spirit, are more than happy […]
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Omnibibulous
Barreling Along At the ripe old age of 4, Baltimore Spirits is the oldest rye distillery in Maryland By Brennen Jensen The Baltimore Spirits Company has taken to billing itself as “the oldest rye distillery in Baltimore,” which makes me chuckle a bit. Not because this isn’t a true statement, it’s just that I’ve visited […]
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News from Grow & Fortify
HEAVY SEAS BEER EARNS TOP HONORS AT MARYLAND CRAFT BEER COMPETITION Pounder Pils named “Best in Show” in Brewers Association of Maryland 2019 compeittion Pounder Pils from Halethorpe’s Heavy Seas Beer was announced as the best beer of the 2019 Maryland Craft Beer Competition. In front of a crowd of more than 300 craft beer […]
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Manor Hill Sparkles
Since its founding in 2015, Manor Hill Brewing has wowed Marylanders with its beers, made on Manor Hill Farm in Ellicott City. Now, the family-owned brewery is giving locals something else to cheer about: flavored sparkling water. In the case of Manor Hill’s canned sparkling waters, currently available in tangerine and lime flavors, necessity was […]
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A Hangover-Free Spirit
American Shochu Company owners, from left, Takatsugu (Taka) and Lynn Amano with their children, Taylor Skye Kiyomi and Gray Takayuki. Shochu is the most popular spirit in Japan, but when Taka Amano explains the drink to curious folks here, his first step is to say what it isn’t. First off, it’s not sake, Japan’s more-famous […]
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Distillery Lane Ciderworks Brings George Washington’s Apple Tree Back to Life
by Brennen Jensen Distillery Lane co-owner Rob Miller and his dog, Kingston, stand among the property’s some 4,000 apple trees. DISTILLERY LANE CIDERWORKS IS ALL ABUZZ Distillery Lane Ciderworks sits in a bucolic corner of Frederick County—out where the blacktop dips and snakes, the fields and farmland roll, and South Mountain is a hazy blue […]
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