Behind the Vines: A VIP Look at Maryland Crafted & Crow Vineyard

Check out all the great events Laurie has on the calendar in 2026 on her website at TheWineCoach.com/events including her comedic wine tasting Something to Wine About at The Room at Cedar Grove in Lewes, DE on July 10th at 6PM.

Maryland wine is having a moment, and this episode takes you right to the heart of it. Laurie sits down with Janna Howley of the Maryland Wineries Association to get a preview of Maryland Crafted, the premier celebration of Maryland wine, beer, and spirits taking place June 13 in Centreville, Maryland.

Then she chats with Judy Crow and winemaker Michael Zollo of Crow Vineyard & Winery, to explore the growth of Maryland's wine industry and what makes it such an exciting destination for wine lovers. 

You'll also get an inside look at Crow Vineyard's journey from family farm to award-winning winery. Along the way, the conversation covers wine tasting tips, food pairing advice, common wine myths, and why Maryland's unique climate and community are helping produce wines worth discovering.

Wines Tasted

Crow Vineyards Pinot Gris

Crow Vineyards Barbera Reserve 

To find out more about Maryland Crafted on June 13th and get your VIP tickets visit MarylandCrafted.com

Transcript

Laurie Forster (00:26)
This week on The Sipping Point, we're going to talk to the folks at Crow Vineyards in Kennedyville, Maryland. And also, I'm going to tell you all about a great event that's coming up on June 13th called Maryland Crafted. It's all about great Maryland-made wine, beer, and spirits, as well as great live music, Maryland artisans, and so much more. We'll get to that in a minute, but just a reminder that my wine comedy show.

Something to Wine about is coming up on July 10th at the room at Cedar Grove in Lewes Delaware. We're gonna open the doors at 6 p.m. The show is gonna start at 6:30, and we're just gonna have tons of fun with wine and laughter. You can go to thewinecoach.com, click on events, and get all the information to get your tickets there. And only one room left for Tuscany in October. If you've been sitting on the fence and you're thinking about it.

Definitely go to that same page, check out the information about my Tuscany tour, email me for a brochure, and let's talk. All right, I'm gonna bring in Janna Howley, who is the president of the Maryland Wineries Association. She's gonna tell us all about This great event coming up on June 13th from 12 to 5 p.m. with winemakers.

brew masters and distillers from all over the state of Maryland. you can get a VIP ticket that gets you a seat in a sit-down tasting with the folks from Crow Vineyards.

Just go to Marylandcrafted.com. You can get all the information on the festival and buy your tickets there. But let's go ahead and bring Janna into the show.

Laurie Forster (02:03)
Janna welcome back to the sipping point.

Janna Howley (02:06)
Hi Laurie, it's good to be here. Nice to see you again.

Laurie Forster (02:08)
Yeah, well, we we always seem to meet this time of year because Maryland Crafted is coming up on June 13th from 12 to 5 p.m. in downtown Centerville. And I know, you know, you're running the Maryland Wineries Association, and that is really the engine behind this great event. So maybe first you could tell us a little bit about what you do with Maryland Wineries Association, and then let's get into the details of this great event.

Janna Howley (02:35)
Sure, yeah. So the Maryland Wineries Association is the nonprofit trade association that supports our state wineries. And we do advocacy on behalf of our members, a lot of education. We market and promote them, provide startup support. So really kind of a one stop shop for growing and supporting the Maryland wine community. And yeah, we have a really great partner.

in the town of Centerville for this event. This is a several-year partnership. And the idea is to basically bring Maryland crafted products, primarily beer, wine, and spirit, but the spirits. But the great thing about this event is that our partner Centerville identifies like a lot of local artisans and vendors. So it really is kind of truly all about all kinds of forms of Maryland craft.

and it's it in downtown Centerville, so it's got this like lovely main street feel to it. and anybody can attend, but if you would like to sample, then you would need to purchase a tasting pass, which is really easy to do. it's at our Marylandcrafted.com website. and a tasting pass to be able to walk around and sample products from breweries, wineries, and distilleries is $25.

And again, if you don't feel like sampling, you can just kind of wander around and you know hear some great music and see everything that's going on. but there really are a nice variety of wine, beer, and spirits producer, which what makes it really fun is because there's something for everybody, you know, in that offering. and yeah, it's just it's it's a really great feeling event, very community focused.

And you can also purchase tickets the day of. So you know, if you're kind of Friday night, you're figuring out what you want to do for the weekend. It's Saturday morning, you wake up and you're like, Yeah, I really want to go. You can purchase the morning of. we are happy to have you walk up and buy a ticket. and we also for the second year this year, we have a fantastic VIP experience. and that's a little bit more involved. It starts before the event itself.

Laurie Forster (04:30)
Yes.

Janna Howley (04:36)
and it's at Bull and Goat, and it is in partnership with Crow Vineyard and Winery on the shore in Kennedyville. And they're they do a lovely job, their wines are great, and they've got this great food and wine pairing that will be happening as part of the VIP experience. And then that VIP ticket gets you a tasting pass. and then there's also a cool special hangout area for VIPs.

Laurie Forster (05:00)
Yeah.

Janna Howley (05:00)
at the event also. So yeah, it's we're we're really trying to kind of create multiple experiences for whatever people feel like doing that day.

Laurie Forster (05:08)
And I think the VIP ticket is such a great value because not only are you getting that tasting pass, and really you can taste as many things as you want during the period of the festival. you can pick and choose whatever your favorites are, and you also purchase from these wonderful wineries and breweries and distilleries as well. And then the you'll hold on to it and they can grab it at the end of the festival.

But the VIP sit-down experience, not only will Michael Zolo and Judy Crow from the Vineyards be there, and I'm actually going to invite them in in a little bit here to talk more about what they're doing. That sit-down tasting, the pairings are coming from Firefly Cheeses, Bay Shore Steampot, and also Docks Riverside. So there's some really great food. You get a nice little base in your stomach.

Janna Howley (05:51)
Nice.

Laurie Forster (05:55)
And I know the bull and goat brewery guys are going to be sharing something that they've crafted as well and giving a little tour of the brewery. And so you get that to just kind of kick things off. And then, like you said, a separate tent where you can relax and have some more snacks from Docks Riverside in between your tastings. And they always have the best bands and knock on wood, the best weather for this event. the last couple of years it's just been phenomenal.

Janna Howley (06:00)
Ooh.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah. And yeah, we should say the event is rain or shine. but we know everybody's gonna come on out and be brave, even if there's a little bit of a sprinkle, you know, and it'll like we said, it'll turn gorgeous, I swear. It seems like it always is really good weather for this event. So

Laurie Forster (06:35)
It is.

Any of your wine, brewery, and distillery partners, you want to give us a little shout out about some of the people who we might expect to be there?

Janna Howley (06:44)
yeah, sure. my gosh. this is a great, it's a really great lineup of people. so we've got several spirits producers, we've got I'll I'll just do a quick run through of our lineup because it's so awesome. we've got Baltimore Spirits Company, Chesapeake Manor Vineyard, Covalent Spirits, Crow Vineyard and Winery, of course, Fordham Lee Distillery, Grey Wolf, Leighton's Chance Winery, Lion Rum, McClintock Distilling.

Laurie Forster (06:54)
Okay.

Janna Howley (07:11)
we've got Mully's Brewery, Oliver Brewing, Pathfinder Farm Distillery, a new Rose Garden Wines. They're new to the association. Rosie Cheeks Distillery, Schmidt Spirit, St. Michael's Winery, Tenth Ward ⁓ distilling, and Tipsy Teacher Wines. So truly something for everybody. as you mentioned, Laurie all of those producers have product that you can purchase to you know take home with you. And we are happy to check it at our wine check tent.

Laurie Forster (07:23)
Yeah.

Janna Howley (07:37)
so you know really if you like something, this is a perfect opportunity to kind of shop till you drop.

Laurie Forster (07:42)
It is. And I love that because a lot of times you go to these festivals, you find something you really like, but then you can't purchase it there. And then and then you got to go about trying to trying to find it. So that is a great service for everyone. Awesome. Well, I'm so glad you kind of painted the picture for us of Maryland Crafted on June 13th from 12 to 5 or 11 to 5 if you get that coveted VIP ticket, which I know those are limited.

Janna Howley (07:49)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

They are.

Laurie Forster (08:07)
⁓

where should folks go to get the tickets and what's the best way to do it?

Janna Howley (08:11)
So they can go to MarylandCrafted.com and that takes you right to the ticketing page. it's got more details and information about the event itself. And again, if you want to w come day of and just walk up and purchase tickets, we are more than happy to do that. like you did mention though, the VIP tickets could sell out. So it's probably just a good idea to pre-purchase those and not risk, you know, day of. I think for food purposes, we'll probably, you know, we'll have to

kind of close the tickets out a few days before the event. So definitely if you're interested in that, go ahead and purchase those. And the general tasting passes, you know, purchase ahead of time or feel free to walk up and buy the tickets.

Laurie Forster (08:48)
That's awesome. Well, Janna thank you so much for joining me. I'm gonna bring in Judy and Michael from Crow Vineyards and hear a little bit more about that sit-down tasting at the VIP. But thanks as always for coming on the sipping point.

Janna Howley (08:50)
Mm. Yeah.

thanks. Thanks for everything you do to promote local products. So we appreciate it.

Laurie Forster (09:03)
Judy and Michael, welcome to the sipping point.

Judy and Michael Crow Vineyard (09:06)
Thank you. Thanks for having me. We're like twins.

Laurie Forster (09:09)
Well, I just talked to Janna of the Maryland Wine Association, and we talked about some of the event highlights. And of course, one of them is the VIP wine tasting with you guys at the Bull and Goat Brewery at 11 a.m. that morning of the event. And so, Judy, if folks don't know about Crow Farm Vineyards.

And everything you have there, the wine, the cattle, just the whole setting. us about how you came to start the winery and what can people expect if they do come and visit you?

Judy and Michael Crow Vineyard (09:42)
We got started in the winery business is Roy and I got married, and the farm had been in his family for three generations: 365 acres, corn and sweet beans, and then once we got married, we decided we're gonna diversify and we planted some grapes. And then, you know, that led to Brandon, our son, joined us. And once you have youth in your back pocket, you're like, we can do anything. so we decided we were gonna start making wine.

And we renovated a five thousand square foot facility, an old Morton building, and now we're making wine. We took the eighteen forty seven farmhouse and we made a bed and breakfast out of that, and the tenant house we turned into a cottage and we rent that. So people can come and stay with us and hang out and buy wine. and we have grass fed Angus beef.

Roy had a herd of about ten. Now we have about a hundred. We're very intentional with raising the beef and we're just like a place that people can come, get away, enjoy wine, enjoy good beef, and have a good time while they're here. It's a beautiful, tranquil place. Yeah.

Laurie Forster (10:31)
Yes.

Love that. And you guys are in

yeah, you you guys are in Kennedyville, Maryland, which is Kent County and near Chestertown, if folks don't know exactly where Kennedyville is. And exactly, Michael, what you were saying. It's just a very peaceful and fun place to visit if you, you know, need an outing or a day of wine, which

I always seem to need. well I'm so glad you guys are participating in Maryland Crafted. Tell us a little bit about Michael, about what are you gonna be doing at the 11 a.m. VIP tasting?

Judy and Michael Crow Vineyard (11:08)
Yeah.

Yeah, so this VIP tasting, we're going to taste three wines. We're gonna pair them against some artisan food. Firefly Farms is doing a beautiful merry goat round brie that we're going to do here. And that's gonna be paired with the twenty twenty four Pinot Gris. we're also doing a rose.

The 2024 rose, this is a blended rose that we do of three of our red grapes on the farm, Merlot, Malbec, and Cab Franc. that's being paired with Bay Shore steam pot crab balls, which I'm really excited. I love their crab cakes. so I'm I'm excited to have it in ball form.

And then the twenty twenty four Barbera Reserve, which we're pairing with Dox Riverside Grill beef sliders. so we picked three feller wines to go with three food offerings. we'll talk about how those wines are made, how we pair wines, how to taste wine like a pro, and walk you through all of that for that VIP ticket. So

Laurie Forster (12:15)
And you guys are gonna be the duo leading that tasting. Judy, you'll you're gonna be there as well, correct?

Judy and Michael Crow Vineyard (12:21)
That's

the plan, I'm gonna be there. Yep, and there should be a bonus tasting with bull and goat too, so Yeah. Secret.

Laurie Forster (12:27)
that's right. People are going to get a tour of the Bull and Goat Brewery. And I know the guys are going to make sure that they taste something that they've crafted. So I have no worries there. Well, now that you're talking about tasting, I'm getting thirsty, and you guys sent me a couple of samples of the two of the wines that will be part of this tasting, and I won't be able to be there. So this is gonna be my tasting right now. So you sent me the the Pinot Gris.

Tell me, Michael, a little bit about this Pinot Gris and how you make it. You know, if people don't know, Pinot Grigio is the same grape as Pinot Gris, but this expresses a little differently than maybe one from Italy. So tell me a little bit more.

Judy and Michael Crow Vineyard (13:08)
Yeah, so we're making this in the French style. this is one of the first grapes to come out of our twelve acre vineyard. We've got eight different varietals here, and this is kind of the canary in the coal mine situation where once these grapes are ready, you know harvest is started. everything at our farm is handpicked. so we pick to lug so that the fruit is treated very gently. We're not picking to large half ton bins. Everything is picked to a twenty-five pound lug so the fruit never gets compressed. Pinot Gris, you know.

The Gris right, if people don't know, is because the skins are actually slightly reddish in hue and so and slightly gray. So gris is the French word for gray. So what we're trying to do with this is treat it very softly, preserve the fruit, but we do a lot of lees integration here, so we're trying to palate this wine very structured and have a lot of weight in the mid palate.

one of the ways that we do that is we run a yeast blend on this. So we're running two non saccharomyces yeasts and those are actually creating aromatic precursors for the main sacchomyces which finishes the fermentation to feed upon. So

Laurie Forster (13:58)
Mm.

Yeah, this has some really good like pear and apricot I was getting on the nose. but definitely it's got a vibrancy and aromatic to it. it's not just, you know, a lot of times the Pinot Grigio, it's very citrus and and that's kinda it. Yeah.

Judy and Michael Crow Vineyard (14:26)
Yeah, and can be very lean. So our goal is to

to make this wine have some dimension.

Laurie Forster (14:31)
Yep, I'm gonna take a sip.

And Judy, I have always loved the Pinot Gris over the years. is this one of the wines that people would taste at your tasting room? And do you have any favorite pairings? Cause I know you love food as well and and you're a great cook. What are there any favorite things you like to put? I know at this event it'll be the merry-go-round goat, but what would you put with this otherwise?

Judy and Michael Crow Vineyard (14:55)
We actually stick with the cheeses too. And we serve in our tasting room Eaves Cheese, which is a local farm that makes cheese around here. And they have something interesting that they make is a Barbera cheddar, made with our Barbera wine. And we've even paired the Pinot Gris with that and does very well. We also on our cheese and charcuterie board we feature our

Laurie Forster (15:16)
Love it.

Judy and Michael Crow Vineyard (15:20)
summer sausage and our sweet sausage and sometimes we smoke s sausage and put that on the cheese trays and that was very nice, yeah.

Laurie Forster (15:29)
And I could see this with all kinds of seafood. And of course, if folks have a little leftover, I know you put the rose with those crab balls, but I think this could be really great with those crab balls as well. it's versatile. All stainless steel, I saw so that it does really, you know, just let that fruit come forward. There's a little bit of minerality there that I really love too.

Judy and Michael Crow Vineyard (15:50)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, this this block tends to

this block is planted over some gravel as well, so it tends to pick a little of that up. we're always trying to showcase it. we do a lot of lees lifting in the tank during the fermentation, so we'll we'll stir the leaves up in the tank to get that up into solution to help fatten this wine up.

Laurie Forster (16:07)
So if if anybody's listening and they're like, Lee's, what are we talking about here, Michael? Give them the idea of what are the Lee's and what do you mean stirring? Cause you actually are stirring them.

Judy and Michael Crow Vineyard (16:19)
Right. So leaves are the yeast cells that are dying during the fermentation and settling to the bottom of the tank. and so one of the things you can do is mix the tank to lift that up into solution so that the other yeast can feed upon it and there's some autolysis that's taking place there. and it can give you a perceived sweetness in the wine and it can also fatten the wine up. And you know, you can mix in tank.

You could also mix in barrel. we do a lot of lees mixing with our Chardonnay as well, where when it's in the oak barrel aging, we actually take a device and lift the leaves up very gently to stir it into solution. So it's a it's an awesome technique.

Laurie Forster (16:58)
Nice.

I understand this is your 10th vintage making wine at Crow Farm Vineyards. congratulations. Happy anniversary, guys. but tell tell us a little bit about how did you become a winemaker and how did you connect with the crows?

Judy and Michael Crow Vineyard (17:04)
Yep. Thank you. Well, thanks.

so my grandfather was a home winemaker. I'm from an Italian family in the Finger Lakes. And so we were always making wine in the basement. and so that's how I got bitten by the bug. and the year he passed, we didn't have a family vintage to do Meatball Sunday at the lake. so my brother and I kinda took over the family production in the basement. Jonathan, my brother, went on to wine school in Cornell.

I had already graduated at that time, so through a family connection with Cornell, actually, my cousin works alumni affairs at Cornell. She was visiting alumni in the San Francisco Bay Area, and she saw an article in the newspaper about Cornell PhD who just won Best Syrah in California. So she gave him a call, she went up and visited that guy, and he was like, There's another Cornell grad right down the street who has a vineyard.

you should visit him. She visited that gentleman and he needed help. And so that's how it happened. I quit my job in insurance and I drove across the country in four days. and I cut my teeth with both those gentlemen out in California for four years. and it was awesome. My last position was up on the Humboldt Coast, making wine out there as well. So that that gentleman at Fieldbrook Winery came down with cancer and he wasn't sure what was gonna happen to

his business. So, you know, he said you should start looking. And so I was looking East Coast because my family was still all back here and I wanted to get back with family. and Judy, Roy, and Brandon had put up an advertisement on winejobs dot com. And I sent them my resume and I got a text message ten minutes later that said we want to talk.

And so that's how it happened. They flew me out here. They gave me a tour of the facility. I saw how serious they were about making amazing wine. They've made a really large investment in in the winery. It's state of the art. all high grade three one six stainless and beautiful French French press. And we have our own bottling line here. So it's from grape to bottle in this facility, and we control everything.

Laurie Forster (18:47)
Love it.

Judy and Michael Crow Vineyard (19:10)
and Brandon is an amazing grower. And so I knew they were serious about making great wine and I wanted to sign on immediately.

Laurie Forster (19:11)
That's wonderful.

Great. Well, we're glad you're here on the East Coast, I know, for 10 years now. all right, Judy, I know we're gonna do at the tasting you'll have the rose, but when you get to red, you're gonna be featuring your Barbera, which you guys have been a proponent and growing Barbera, it seems like since the beginning. a grape that's typically associated with Piedmont, Italy.

but seems to do so well on your estate property, which by the way, both of these wines are from your estate vineyards, correct?

Judy and Michael Crow Vineyard (19:45)
Correct. Yeah. Everything we have is f from our vineyard, yes. Yeah.

Laurie Forster (19:47)
Some

How did you get the idea, Judy, to start growing barberas?

Judy and Michael Crow Vineyard (19:53)
Well, the Maryland Wineries Association and the Maryland Grape Growers Association provided us with so much technical support. And it was Joe Fiola who said, I think Barbera would do very well in your site. And Roy and I did a little research on that. And there was in that research we found out that in Italy Barbera is known as the farmer's wine. So for us we're like, Okay, we're farmers. We're gonna have to drink it every night because you know that's what farmers do.

Laurie Forster (20:19)
Yeah.

Judy and Michael Crow Vineyard (20:19)
And

we're just gonna plant it and see how it goes. And it's it's been spectacular for us. We make a rose with the Barbera. sparkling rose in the method Champenoise Yep. So it's been a real backbone of our portfolio. Yeah, it's a very versatile grape. It has thin skins, so it's a very approachable red for new red drinkers. it also retains its acidity late into the ripening, which is great.

for Maryland weather, so that we have a wine that's very food friendly and has a lot of natural acidity in it. So yep, makes awesome rose because of that and a really great food friendly red because of it as well.

Laurie Forster (20:55)
Yeah, it's so intense with red fruit on the nose and then a little bit of like a toastiness or a you know toast note. And I did see that you do age this in oak barrels for a year, which I know is is a huge investment for a winery. are you doing, how are you doing your oak treatment? Are they more neutral? How much are you looking for the oak to impart on the barbera itself?

Judy and Michael Crow Vineyard (21:19)
So it depends on the vintage. we have a lot of neutral barrels in the cellar, a lot of different toast levels so that we can really select. on an awesome year like 2024, that's more structured. Obviously, this wine can hold up to more new French oak. so we were using some neutral barrels here. We also were using some barrel inserts that go inside your barrel as a stave chain to give you.

still the porosity of a French oak barrel 'cause you're aging in French oak, but it gives you a more new French oak flavor profile and you can select the toast levels on those so you can really hone in on the right toast for that particular wine.

Laurie Forster (21:55)
It's it's really wonderful. And I feel like this is a style that would appeal to a lot of different kinds of wine drinkers because it does have all that purity of fruit, but it's so balanced and with the acidity that it's real food friendly and not a heavy red, if you will, if folks aren't into that. If someone, Michael, has never tasted a Barbera before, is there what would you equate it to, maybe that they may have tasted, or is it?

Is it part Pinot and part Zinfandel? Or what are we talking here? What would you say?

Judy and Michael Crow Vineyard (22:24)
Yeah, I mean, those would be the

two grapes that would come to mind for me as that, you know, a non super structured Pinot, like a softer drinking Pinot Noir or a soft drinking very fruit forward Zinfandel. this grape is amazing because it can show a ton of fruit and part of that natural acidity preservation helps elevate that fruit in the profile. ⁓ but yeah, soft tannins, like this is on the tannin spectrum, this is quite low in in red wine, which makes it

Laurie Forster (22:44)
Mm-hmm.

Judy and Michael Crow Vineyard (22:51)
really easy drinking. ⁓ with this particular vintage we were doing, we picked to two different tanks and hand sorted all of our reds are hand sorted as they come down the line. We did a lot of whole berry fermentation here, which means we didn't crush the fruit. We just destemmed it and sorted it so that we could leave it on the skins a long time and really maximize the flavor extraction and profile out of it. And we did two different

Laurie Forster (22:54)
Uh-huh.

Judy and Michael Crow Vineyard (23:16)
Fermentations, right? One was targeting a very fruit expressive fermentation, and one we were call which we called "Barbera Fruit." And then the other tank was a very we were trying to make more robust and bolder, and we called that "Barbera Robust." And we pressed these separately down to barrel separately, tracked them separately, and then when we were doing our barrel selection process for this reserve, we specifically chose certain barrels. It wound up being a fifty fifty blend of each.

Laurie Forster (23:42)
Fruity and robust. You you covered all the bases there. And I know at the VIP tasting for Maryland Crafted, you're going to be doing Doc's beef sliders with this. But Judy, if you were making dinner for Roy, and maybe Brandon, I don't know if he comes over for dinner all the time, what would you what would be one of your favorite things to make that you would put with this barbero?

Judy and Michael Crow Vineyard (24:04)
Last night we grilled and he had skirt steak that he had grilled and tri-tip and it that was wonderful. And Dox is gonna use our beef when they make the slider. So we're excited about that opportunity to have our anytime we have beef, we we like to hit that barbera, yeah. but I I just wanna say, like, did you see all the excitement that came from Michael when he talks about

Laurie Forster (24:25)
Yeah, no.

Judy and Michael Crow Vineyard (24:29)
The winemaking process, we're just so lucky to have all of that energy and enthusiasm and articulation into the wine making process. Thank you, Michael. thank you, Judy. I think we're really fortunate here that we're a boutique winery, right? We're not making we're not trying to replicate a wine every year. We can try new things, experiment, do all sorts of nifty yeast.

yeast experiments and oak experiments and fermentation experiments, and always trying to better ourselves. And that's one of the great things about working in boutique wine production.

Laurie Forster (25:05)
I agree. And I did get to come out last, I think it was fall, and we taped a live fizz gap there on the property. Michaela and I had a really good time. And Michael, you gave us a great tour of the winery. And I agree, Judy, he is so passionate. And I love that you know so much and you know, education comes natural for you. So I I know everyone is gonna be in for a real treat if they get their VIP tickets.

Judy and Michael Crow Vineyard (25:10)
Yeah. Yeah.

Laurie Forster (25:32)
which to me it's a no-brainer, $65. That gets you into the main Maryland Crafted tasting, but also that awesome sit-down event at Bull and Goat, which I know from last year was just so much fun. And I I know it's gonna be again. if Judy folks want to check out more about the winery or come visit you even before Maryland Crafted, what is the best place for them to go?

Judy and Michael Crow Vineyard (25:56)
Best place to go is our website, Crow Vineyard and Winery dot com. We're open every day, twelve to five. we were very busy over the holiday. It seems like people like to come inside during the rain. We can seat sixty five inside, sixty-five on our patio. We always have fresh food for lunch and I do most of the cooking here. You're right about that. And I love that's the best part of my job is being able to create

product using product that we grow here at the farm or other local products in order to feature something on our tasting room menu. but I I hope everybody will come out and see us.

Laurie Forster (26:27)
Yes, ac absolutely.

Well, one more question, and I'll I'll pose this to Michael, but Judy, if think about it and if you have an answer, I'd love to hear yours as well. But I'd like to ask my guests, is there any wine myth, sort of a thought that a lot of wine consumers have that is just not true, Michael, that you would like to help me dispel?

Wine myth wise.

Judy and Michael Crow Vineyard (26:49)
Ooh boy, this is a tough one. I don't know, do you have any that come to mind?

Laurie Forster (26:53)
Yeah, I would say one of them, and that I'm always being the drama of is that people think that when you drink European wines, there's no sulfites in those wines, but then in America we put tons of sulfites in our wines, and that's why they get headaches. You know me, I'm fine stirring stuff up. Because are people getting headaches from the sulfites, Michael?

Judy and Michael Crow Vineyard (27:06)
I was gonna say this, but I didn't wanna stir stuff up.

Yeah.

No. as a product,

wine actually has quite low sulfites. We're capped at a certain level. compared to other products like dried fruit, for instance, dried apricots or something like that, where they may have up to eight hundred parts per million of sulfite. wine is capped at three hundred and here at the farm we generally never have over a hundred and twenty parts per million. So sulfites occur naturally in fermentation.

so there's already a level of sulfite that is occurring naturally in fermentation. and then it's added by winemakers to one halt oxidation, right? To keep a wine from tasting old and tired, and also from microbial control as well, to keep the dreaded acetobacter from forming the the bacteria that causes vinegar. and yep.

Laurie Forster (28:01)
We don't want that.

Judy and Michael Crow Vineyard (28:02)
So

and depending on your pH levels, not a lot is required. Actually white wine has more sulfite than red wine because it doesn't have the natural antioxidant tannin that a red wine does. so yeah, I mean that's the myth that and it causes headaches or something, they're thinking that that is actually a histamine reaction from pollen on the grape skins coming through the door.

Laurie Forster (28:12)
Yes.

That is a myth.

Or drinking

too much wine. Let's be honest. and what was the price point of the Pinot Gris and the Barbera? Because I think another myth that's out there is that you have to spend a lot of money to get a really great bottle of wine. And I I find these both delicious. but I'm thinking they're both probably under $30, Okay, under both under 30, maybe.

Judy and Michael Crow Vineyard (28:27)
Or drinking too much wine. Right.

under thirty. Under thirty,

yeah. Yeah.

Laurie Forster (28:49)
Yeah, I I'm pretty sure the Pinot Gris is under 25, if I remember. But yeah, they're delicious and they're very value packed. So thank you guys so much for joining me. I know anyone that's joining you for the Maryland Crafted VIP tasting is gonna have an amazing time. I'm just sorry I can't be there with you. But I just wanted to thank you for coming on the sipping point and just say cheers.

Judy and Michael Crow Vineyard (29:13)
Here's to you. Thanks. Thank you for doing this

Laurie Forster (29:15)
you don't want to miss this event. It's gonna be a fabulous day in Centerville, Maryland. Go to Marylandcrafted.com. Get your VIP tickets as soon as you can, because those will definitely sell out. And I can't wait for you to experience that day. As always, I am so thankful for you listening in. If you know another wine lover who you think would appreciate the show, hey, share it. Let them know. And go to the winecoach.com. You can sign up for my email newsletter.

And check out that tab that says events to find out more about my upcoming events and wine tours. All right, next week we're gonna have Paul Cullen, former bassist for the band Bad Company. And we're gonna talk about his wines, his cooking concerts, and my wine comedy show at his place called The Room at Cedar Grove in Lewes, Delaware. Okay, until next week, cheers.