As the old joke goes: "How do you make a small fortune? You start with a large fortune then build a winery!" Ain't that the truth!

Like most small wineries, we are a family affair. The proprietors of the winery are Morris and Janet Zwick, and this is a brief history of how we got to this endeavor.

Morris comes from an Italian background: his mother is a naturalized U.S. citizen born and raised in Naples, Italy. Consequently, Morris visited Italy on occasion growing up to see the Italian half of his family. In Italy, or course, wine is considered food like every other part of the meal. Even Morris and his younger brother, David, were provided a small amount of wine, sometimes blended with water, at lunch and dinner. This was all perfectly normal. Of course, life in the U.S. is a little different. While he can recall touring Napa Valley, California with his parents in the late sixties and being allowed to try a little wine at a tasting room, for the most part offering any wine to a child in the U.S. is strictly against the law (which we will comply with strictly once in operation). Later, Morris spent what he considers his "40 days in the wilderness" from wine while attending the University of Maryland, College Park. During that time (and yes, the legal drinking age was 18), Morris generally drank beer and spirits instead of wine – wine was just not a cool drink for college students. Once graduated, however, Morris refound his love of wine and began to relearn everything about wine. Like many others, he started working backwards in the "supply chain". He thought, gee I like to drink it, why not make some, which he did using kits. But wine is usually made from grapes, so rather than kits Morris started to buy grapes from local grape growers. And naturally, when the Zwick's moved to their new house in 1998, they planted grape vines to supply his hobby (18 vines of sangiovese on the 3309 rootstock to be precise). Using this small platform, Morris learned a lot about grape growing, much of it quite eye opening: fungus, sprays, pests, pruning, shoot positioning, ripening, weed control, etc. This period of learning was greatly enhanced by members of the Maryland Grape Growers Assocation (MGGA). As one finds when dealing with grape growers and wine makers, they love to talk about their craft and also want to learn from you! In particular, Morris was assisted by two members, George Mead and Jim Russell, both from Montgomery County, Maryland. Unfortunately both George and Jim have passed away – and Morris is forever indebted to them for their guidance and love of the grape.

Meanwhile, Janet, whom Morris met while in graduate school at Maryland, was married into this nascent wine environment. Janet grew up on the farm in Elkton that will become our winery. While having a more rational head on her shoulders than Morris when it comes to wine, as the years passed she too grew interested in potentially taking this hobby and making a business with it. Slowly Janet and Morris thought through what we would want in a winery, what we liked and what we disliked. And while Morris can be rather stubborn, Janet slowly managed to steer Morris towards practical ideas for a potential winery.

In order to learn more about growing grapes in a larger scale (but not so large as to be unbearable), we asked Janet's father about setting aside some of the tillable land on the farm to grow grapes. With his approval and encouragement, we put in our first vineyard in 2003 on the farm. In the meantime, we started to think about locations for our winery. We wanted a place that was easily accessible (we wanted people to visit, and it is hard for them to do that when you are in the "boon docks"), had enough space to meet some of our grape needs, and that had the correct access and buildable space to put in a winery. Some members of Janet's family suggested that we consider the farm, since her father wanted it to stay agricultural and in the family. After much thought and discussion, we decided that the farm would work. While getting the consent of the family, we also started working with Cecil County on the required zoning changes and state laws required to put a winery at the farm. To date Cecil County has been an enthusiastic supporter of our proposed winery, and we hope to not disappoint them with the result!

Of course, two people with three children, a full-time job, and the rest could not prevail in this project without a lot of help! We will be adding to this story as we get their permission to weave it in.