Port of Leonardtown Winery at 15: Sparkling Reds, Viognier & the Future of Maryland Wine

Summary 

In this episode of The Sipping Point, Laurie Forster, The Wine Coach®, sits down with Lauren Zimmerman, head winemaker at Port of Leonardtown Winery. Lauren shares her journey from Canada to Maryland and what drew her into the world of wine. Together they dive into the unique cooperative model behind Port of Leonardtown, the winery’s standout bottles like the Viognier and Captain’s Table Red Blend, and the sparkling red crafted for their 15th anniversary.

Lauren also opens up about the evolving Maryland wine scene, the impact of women winemakers, and her advice for anyone dreaming of stepping into the cellar. Whether you’re curious about local wines, cooperative wineries, or simply love a good glass with a great story, this conversation will leave you inspired—and thirsty.

Takeaways

1. Port of Leonardtown Winery is a unique cooperative winery in Maryland.
2. The winery's Viognier is part of their premium Black Label series.
3. Captain's Table Red Blend won Best Red Blend at the Atlantic Seaboard wine competition.
4. The winery created a special edition sparkling red, Bubbly Noir for their 15th anniversary.
5. Lauren emphasizes the growing role of women in the Maryland and advises aspiring winemakers to volunteer and gain experience in different areas.

Wines Tasted

Viognier 

Captains Table Red

Bubbly Noir 

Check out Lauren's Instagram for behind the scenes winemaking scoop and POL Winery website for info on visiting the winery.

Transcript

Laurie Forster (00:29)
Welcome back to The Sipping Point. This week, we're going to talk to Lauren Zimmerman from Port of Leonardtown Winery. It's one of the only cooperative wineries in the state of Maryland. She's a lot of fun and her wines are delicious. So I'm going to introduce her in just a minute. But a reminder, if you're interested in joining me on my tour, Treasures of Tuscany in October of twenty twenty six. Registration is open. We're already about half full.

and I would love for you to join me. Just email me, lori at thewinecoach.com. I'll get you the brochure, all the information, and anything you need to know, I'm here for you.

Lauren Zimmerman grew up in Canada and has 20 years of experience managing in the wine industry. After going to school for Enology and Viticulture, she moved here to North America and has done work in New Zealand, getting experience from the top.

players in the industry. She was one of the youngest Vintners in Ontario. She purchased land and planted five acres of Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir and then met her husband, which is how she moved to Maryland. Since starting at Port of Leonardtown Winery, the winery has gotten numerous prestigious awards, including the coveted Best in Show for the Maryland Governor's Cup twice and Best in Show for the Maryland Controllers Cup twice.

She is on the board at the Maryland Grape Growers Association, Maryland Wineries Association, and also works with Maryland Tourism. Let's go ahead and bring Lauren into the show.

Laurie Forster (02:02)
Lauren, welcome to The Sipping Point.

Lauren Zimmerman (02:04)
Hello.

Thank you for having me.

Laurie Forster (02:06)
For those of you who are watching this on video, she is in the cellar with the barrels and the tanks and everything all around her. So this is the perfect place for you to join us. And I was telling everyone about your amazing background and all of the great things that you've done. But I thought that's where we would start, So how did you become a winemaker?

Lauren Zimmerman (02:25)
So

it's a long story, but I am, this will be my 21st vintage working in the wine industry. So the years have flown by. I am born and raised Canadian. So I grew up in Ontario, Canada. I started working in the wine industry there, started working in local vineyards while I was in high school and just fell in love with the agricultural end of the industry.

I love driving tractors, being involved with the canopy management, harvesting the grapes. I just thought it was all so very cool. I wasn't much of a wine drinker then, but my mom, who is an avid winemaker slash wine drinker, she would make wine in the basement and do carboys, small batch stuff, home wine making. And that was really my first introduction to wines.

And I remember tasting these carboys and thinking, my gosh, this stuff is terrible. Bless my mom's heart. She's come a long ways, but it's, I was not impressed with the first couple tastes I had. Her and my grandfather would be making the wine. So I just remember helping bottle and thinking that part was fun. But I eventually, after graduating high school, moved to Niagara Falls.

studied wine making and viticulture, had my degree and that program was very informative. was, it covered everything from viticulture, biology of the vines, the obviously the wine making, a lot of chemistry involved, and then the marketing and sales. So as you know, Laurie I like to be involved in all areas. So being part of these boutique smaller wineries are kind of, you know, it's a better suited for me to.

Laurie Forster (03:59)
Mm-hmm.

Lauren Zimmerman (04:09)
to dive in and be involved in a little bit of everything.

Laurie Forster (04:12)
Yeah, so how did you get to the States? So you did all that studying in Niagara and there is such a great and thriving wine industry around Niagara on the lake and in Canada as well. So how did you get here to Maryland for us to have your amazing skills here?

Lauren Zimmerman (04:28)
So I

met this adorable American and apparently I have a thing for the American accent because he lured me over here and I, although he would love to move to Canada, but we have our roots here and families so we're here in southern Maryland. love it.

Laurie Forster (04:47)
Well, that brings me to another question. If people are just hearing about Port of Leonardtown Winery give us an idea where the winery is located and a little bit about the background because I know yours is quite a unique winery.

Lauren Zimmerman (04:59)
Yeah, so Port of Leonardtown,

the only cooperative-owned winery that I'm aware of that operates as we do. We're very unique. have many local vineyards came together back 2007, a group of 11 individual vineyards, and they grouped together to open the cooperative and part of Leonardtown Winery.

along with the help from the town and the county to open up the building. they essentially, instead of each individual vineyard opening their own winery, it's very, you know, expensive to buy the equipment. They all came together. So the grapes are dropped off, left in my capable hands. And then they essentially walk away at that point. And everything is bottled under the Port of Leonardtown label.

So the, can blend and, you know, manipulate the different blends from each vineyard. They don't stay individual. So it's really makes our wines unique because I'm working with vineyards from all over Maryland, from Eastern shore, Western Maryland, Southern Maryland, all different, you know, terroirs and flavor profiles. So really makes for some unique blends and especially with our red wines.

We really have some unique stuff.

Laurie Forster (06:15)
That's great. And I love, you know, all these different grape growers coming together in one winery. You know, that's something that's done, you know, certainly in France and other places, you know, in Italy as well. So it's great that we have that here in Maryland, all, under your winemaking skills. And speaking of I'm getting a little thirsty here. So we have three of your wines that we're going to taste. And the first one

is your Viognier And so I thought now that we've kind of got the background out, let's talk about this Viognier and certainly a grape that's from the Rhone, originating in the Rhone Valley in France, but does really well here on the East Coast.

Lauren Zimmerman (06:54)
Yes, this is one of

my favorite wines. I didn't work with it while in Canada and New Zealand, the time I spent there, but Maryland Viognier just seems like a great grape for that. It stands up the humidity. The aromatics of this grape is just phenomenal. You get that peach, super floral, very like clean, bright. I do a 100 % stainless steel aging for this wine.

Laurie Forster (07:16)
Yes.

Lauren Zimmerman (07:17)
I have dabbled with barrel aging and, you know, doing a little lees stirring to add some complexity and body. But this wine on its own, even with, with just stainless steel, I feel like has like a little bit of body to it. Very like intense and yeah, very fruit forward.

Laurie Forster (07:35)
It is, and it's just, right away what I love about Viognier is it's so expressive. When you take a smell on the nose, as we might say, you know there's gonna be some really amazing fruit here. And I do love the stainless steel. It's very clean, it's very fresh, but bursting with fruit. And tangerine, you mentioned peach. And even that floral sort of, wow, this has got a little perfume to it.

Lauren Zimmerman (07:58)
Yes, sprayed on like perfume,

but this particular vintage 2024, one of the best vintages since I've moved to the US. know, this whole, the later season of the growing season was very dry, which really concentrated the fruit, especially the Viognier We ended up with a little higher brix sugar content in the grapes, which equaled out to more alcohol. So that adds to the weight and body and seriousness of this beautiful wine.

Laurie Forster (08:26)
Yeah, really, really lovely. And you have like different levels of wine. Where does this fall in your sort of lineup of wines?

Lauren Zimmerman (08:32)
So we really have

two different tiers or portfolios at Port of Leonardtown Winery. We have our Black Label series, which the Viognier falls under that. So these are our more premium, limited edition wines that are available, you know, a lot to our club members first. They always get first dibs and come from the best vineyards and sites. And then we have our

swirl label series which are more fun loving everyday drinking kind of wines but equally as delicious.

Laurie Forster (09:04)
I love that on your tasting notes, you also provide ideas for food pairings, because that's my favorite way to enjoy wine. What's would be your favorite thing to have with your Viognier

Lauren Zimmerman (09:15)
So well,

I know like seafood in Maryland is a big thing. So this wine has that natural citrus character. So of course, know, rockfish, oysters are a big thing. We have a couple of local oyster farms right here in St. Mary's County. So it's a, it's pretty amazing pairing. make a Albarino as well. And that one's really tasty and similar kind of profile as the, the Viognier So definitely seafood friendly.

Laurie Forster (09:42)
Yes, I love your Albarino as well, for sure. And, know, Viognier I kind of definitely equate with Maryland and Virginia, but Albarino seems to be, you know, really out there with a lot of the wineries. When did you start working with Albarino?

Lauren Zimmerman (09:55)
So we've been working

with Albarino from the beginning. Essentially we have a vineyard here locally, although now I've evolved and our production has grown so much. So now I may, I buy from a vineyard up north of Frederick, which is just a completely different profile and a little more acidity. There's something about the, you know, being a little bit Northern, you get the cooler nights, the grapes tend to hold onto the acidity.

and it just makes like a nice bright Albarino but it's always been one of my favorites here.

Laurie Forster (10:27)
So let's say we're inspiring people to come visit you down there in Leonardtown. What can people expect when they come to the winery? Paint? I know we're in the cellar. So and and I can hear it's a busy harvest time right now. But if people come to do a tasting or attend an event, what what can they expect?

Lauren Zimmerman (10:45)
So

yes, we are in full production mode right now and I wanted to show you we're pressing our Sauvignon Blanc grapes today. So it is full swing, but you can come and visit and you can see into the production. We have a window from the tasting room so you can kind of see what's going on. We regularly invite people back if there's time to, you know, kind of get a tour or a tasting.

Laurie Forster (10:53)
⁓ beautiful.

Lauren Zimmerman (11:11)
see the press in action and it's really cool to kind of experience that and see, you know, from, you know, grape to bottle. Everything happens right here. But we are open seven days a week, so you can come visit anytime. We're right in the heart of Leonardtown, so somewhat of an urban winery, but we have great restaurants, art galleries, lots to do in Leonardtown, so.

It is worth a weekend trip if you're coming from afar and nice hotels, B &Bs to stay at right on the water. So we do live music every weekend and food trucks. So always something to look forward to.

Laurie Forster (11:50)
Great. Yeah, wonderful. Well, you mentioned your swirl series, and I think the next wine we're gonna taste is your captain's table, Red Blend. And it's a special wine because you've been recognized for this wine recently, correct?

Lauren Zimmerman (12:04)
Yes, so we just found

out that it won the best red blend at the Atlantic Seaboard wine competition. So there's hundreds of wines submitted to this competition and the, know, if you score 90 points and above, you usually get a gold, but only they choose one, you know, best white, best red, best rosé. So we won the best of category, which is pretty cool. The Atlantic Seaboard is

the entire East Coast. Virginia, obviously Delaware, Maryland. So it Jersey. I think there's about 10 states covered. Thank you. This one, it's always been one of my favorites. It's, it's very fruit forward eight months and oak barrels. So it's like a little more.

Laurie Forster (12:41)
Well, congratulations. Love that.

Lauren Zimmerman (12:52)
approachable and just fun.

Laurie Forster (12:55)
Yeah. And it has a nice little like coffee chocolate type of note as well, probably from the, from the barrel aging. What, what is the blend? as far as the grape varietals

Lauren Zimmerman (13:05)
this one was a Chambourcin majority, 50 % Chambourcin, and I believe it was 40, Cab Franc. I know it was a little heavier on Cab Franc, and then Merlot, 10 % Merlot, so.

Laurie Forster (13:19)
Yes.

Lauren Zimmerman (13:20)
This particular blend is always a blend of like vinifera and hybrid, the Chambourcin I'm a huge fan of Chambourcin. Very versatile, grows phenomenally here in Maryland. And we do so many different styles of Chambourcin. So it's a very like premium drinking red, but at a very reasonable price point at I think $25. So.

Laurie Forster (13:21)
Perfect, yeah.

Yes.

Nice. And I don't know if I asked you, what was the price point on the Viognier?

Lauren Zimmerman (13:45)
So that

is a funny story because originally it is $30, $29.99, but we released it to our club and the somehow it was entered into the system as $23. So you can get it at the extremely good price of $23. Our Abarino is

Laurie Forster (14:05)
Yeah.

Lauren Zimmerman (14:06)
I know we're down to our last few cases of Albarino too, so to get it before it's gone.

Laurie Forster (14:12)
Wonderful. And if people can get to the winery, I know you can order on your website as well, because I've done that. So definitely check out their website because it's the way you can get the wines in between visits. So I love that this is a nice medium weight to it. It's just very easy drinking. The tannins are very elegant. you don't have to wait for this wine. It's ready to drink now in my mind, but

How long would you keep this type of red as far as aging?

Lauren Zimmerman (14:38)
So you're exactly

right. It's not a huge full bodied wine, not big, aggressive tannins. So this wine is very drinkable right now, but it could easily age for another few years.

Laurie Forster (14:51)
I just feel like this could go with so many things and appeal to so many different types of wine drinkers. And so I appreciate that. And certainly if people are into boats or cruising, this is a great

gift for anyone that loves that. mean, Captain's Table, who doesn't want to be at the Captain's Table, right?

Lauren Zimmerman (15:05)
Exactly and

it's conveniently closed under a screw cap so it makes it very convenient to reseal if you don't finish the whole bottle in one sitting so very convenient.

Laurie Forster (15:18)
screw caps are no longer social suicide. tell everyone now I know our third wine that we're going to taste is very special. And I think is this the first time you're creating the bubbly noir?

Lauren Zimmerman (15:20)
And cut.

Yes, so

first time doing a sparkling red. This is a very special wine. It's to celebrate our 15 year anniversary here at the winery. We wanted to do something unique, something special and what's more unique than sparkling red. So it was interesting to make. Now I know why people don't make it very often. It's a pain in the butt, but we had a lot of fun, something new.

We collaborated with the local arts community to design this beautiful label. I know the video image doesn't do justice, but we had a competition to design the label and we had 30 entries and we ended up narrowing it down to our top three favorites and then we went into a public vote and Bernard

Laurie Forster (16:16)
Mmm!

Lauren Zimmerman (16:23)
Matus ended up winning the top design and it's pretty phenomenal. If you can see it, it's a collage of grapes, vineyard, and then our wine glass and logo there.

Laurie Forster (16:36)
So pretty, he did a great, congrats Bernard, you did a great job. I think it's beautiful, I just opened Vine up and I'm going to pour a little taste.

Lauren Zimmerman (16:46)
And this wine, although red, of course you want to chill it because it's sparkling. So best enjoyed chilled and very fruit forward. It's like juicy fruit. the berries, elderberry in there. Blueberry. is just like mouthwatering, delicious.

Laurie Forster (17:02)
And I did read it on your tasting notes. This is considered off dry because there is about 1 % residual sugar here, right? So there is a tad of sweetness here.

Lauren Zimmerman (17:10)
Yeah, just to round it

out and give it some body and yeah, so it drinks dry because of the bubbles, but yeah, super fruit forward and and fun.

Laurie Forster (17:18)
Mm-hmm.

That is delicious. my gosh. I'm gonna have my daughter, Michaela, who you got to meet at the Trade Tasting recently try this. I know she is gonna love this as well. It really is like you're taking a sip of a bowl of berries, Yeah. I love this.

Lauren Zimmerman (17:25)
I'm gonna go to work.

just harvested Pinot Noir.

So we are making that into a sparkling too. So we have our white sparkling as well as rosé sparkling. So it's, it's fun to have the Pinot Noir grape I worked with a lot in Ontario. You don't see it as often in Maryland, but I think, yeah, it's great for some more premium bubbly style.

Laurie Forster (17:57)
I've had a number of sparkling reds, like a sparkling Shiraz from Australia or a Lambrusco from Italy. Another red sparkling. Is this something that consumers were asking for? What was the inspiration?

Lauren Zimmerman (18:12)
So we definitely

see a lot of demand for sparkling bubbly, we just, we want to do something unique just for the anniversary. So that's where the sparkling red came in. But this is a limited edition, one time only, we're not going to be recreating it this year. So once it's sold out, then it's officially gone.

Laurie Forster (18:23)
Nice.

This is great. you know, when we were in Australia, this may sound gross, but the big thing there was sparkling Shiraz with grilled kangaroo. But to them, it's like deer, like venison or something. But grilled meat with this would be delicious. I really could see with a little bit of a spice rub on it.

Lauren Zimmerman (18:38)
Interesting.

Yeah. ⁓

Laurie Forster (18:50)
because we have all that great fruit to counteract. What would be your favorite thing to put with this?

Lauren Zimmerman (18:54)
So we actually

right now it's fig season in southern Maryland. So everyone's harvesting their figs. So bacon wrapped figs with this wine. Beautiful. And then like a goat cheese, blueberry goat cheese. Amazing. It's so good with this wine.

Laurie Forster (19:10)
That's so great. I know you're part of a group of Maryland women winemakers. So tell us a little bit about that. I know even since I've started my business, it's been 20 years now, there are so many more women in the industry, which is amazing. What are you seeing in our Maryland wine industry as far as women winemakers?

Lauren Zimmerman (19:22)
and

Well, I feel like

some of the top winemakers in Maryland are all females. So that says a lot. think it's a well-known fact that females have a stronger sense of taste and smell So that's a big win for us. But yeah, think Maryland is under 20 % female winemakers. So still a male dominated industry, but females are

standing up and taking on some lead roles and showing these amazing results. So it's even in the last 10 years, it's really amazing to see how many more females are coming in and more in the production end. feel like retail sales has always been more female dominated, but now you're seeing a lot more of the women winemakers really kicking butt out there. So it's cool to see.

Laurie Forster (20:10)
Mm-hmm.

That's awesome. And I know you have a harvest to get to, but one more question for you. If someone's listening and they're inspired by your story, they love wine, and maybe they want to go on this journey to become a winemaker, what advice do you have for them to get started?

Lauren Zimmerman (20:37)
So I

would just say jump right in, know, come to the winery, obviously tour wineries, talk to winemakers, volunteer, get some experience, kind of find out what areas you're interested in. Production is not for everybody, it's, we do, we bring on volunteers to help bottle and sometimes with the crush seasons. So if you're local, then.

stop by and I can give you little intro into the production end of the wine industry. But volunteering for the Maryland Wine Association for festivals is a great way to kind of get introduced into the industry and make some really great connections. yeah, definitely taste a lot of wine, talk to, you know, industry folks and just jump in and have fun.

Laurie Forster (21:24)
Yes, just get started basically and learn as much as you can and whine. You'll never you'll never need to stop learning because there's always something new. Well, Lauren, thank you so much for joining me here. If folks want to check out your website or connect with you on social, What are the best places for them to go?

Lauren Zimmerman (21:24)
Yeah.

So you can

visit our website for bottle sales, online store. We ship to most states and you can also follow us on Facebook, social media and that's where we keep our local musicians and the happenings at the winery and events and all that. But you can find.

me under Lauren Wine Girl on the Instagram account for a little behind the scenes action.

Laurie Forster (22:08)
This has been fabulous. I'll post links to all of that so people can find you easily. Thank you so much for sharing these three wines. They were delicious. all I want to say now is cheers.

Lauren Zimmerman (22:17)
Thank you, Laurie. Cheers.

Laurie Forster (22:18)
I'll post a link to the Port of Leonardtown Winery website. You definitely want to give that a check out. And if you get a chance to go down to Leonardtown, it is just a beautiful town. I know you're going to love visiting the winery, meeting Lauren, she's infectious and so much more. So check that out at thewinecoach.com and just click on blog and all the information will be there. And while you're there, visit the events tab where there's information.

about my virtual wine tasting, Bubbly Bash 2025 on December 10th, and also my tour to Tuscany in 2026. I want you to join me. All right. If you enjoy the show, I want to ask a favor. Please let another wine lover you know, know about the sipping point. I always love to have more wine lovers like you join me week to week to just have more fun with wine. All right. Until next week.

Cheers.