Wine Farming at Crow
In 2022 we are celebrating a milestone year marking 10 years of wine farming. We feel blessed to have been in the business of being a successful farm winery for these years.
Wine farming is unique at Crow because of the fact that we were and are a farm first. Many wineries create a farm component after their establishment but at Crow the rich soils and farm work ethic existed already. Crow has been farming on the land we live and operate our business on since the early 1900’s. That’s a long time! We attribute our success to our authentic farm heritage and continued operations as a working farm which produces wheat, corn and soy and delicious grass-fed beef from our herd of Angus cattle.
Our winery opened ten years ago in 2012 following two years of careful vineyard planning and planting. Combining skillful farming practices with our dedication to learning vineyard management has led to quality fruit for us to work with in our winery. Here are a few of our wine farming practices that have led to ten years of achievements at Crow. View Achievements>
1. We don’t throw anything away…
Everything on a farm has a use. In our first few years we produced a lot of Vidal Blanc grapes. We didn’t get rid of the excess but instead we figured out a way to make several different wines from this grape varietal.
2. We don’t give up…
Part of being a farmer is to work your way through things that don’t change such as weather. When the wine country movement started to take hold on the Eastern Shore of Maryland there were a lot of false starts with poor quality red wines so the area had gotten a bad rep for reds. Along with a skillful winemaker consultant we researched a red varietal, Barbera, that would grow well on the Eastern Shore climate and soils and we were able to bring a quality estate wine to the table.
3. We are (carefully) growing something everyday!
We grow more then grapes in our vineyard…we grow cattle and birth new calves, we plant corn and harvest it, we visit the chicken coop each day and find fresh eggs, we grow visitors and wine club members. Which means everyday we are cultivating many forms of life so by default we are careful and watchful to the “T’ . This careful cultivation carries over to the way we treat our visitors at our farm and winery and the way we care for our wine club members. Our hospitality is personal, parental, educative and warmly attentive.
We hope you have enjoyed learning a bit about Wine Farming at Crow and what makes it unique. Stay tuned for more “Celebrating 10 years of Wine Farming” articles from us.