18th century farm turning into Worcester winery

Brittany Mariner won't let a little thing like an inhospitable climate stop her from fulfilling her grandfather's dream.

The twin scourges of any winemaker are humidity and rain. A native of Worcester County, Mariner knows full well those two elements are the Delmarva Peninsula's most abundant natural resources.

Yet here the 25-year-old is, overseeing the transformation of her family's 18th century farm into the Eastern Shore's newest winery. And yes, she plans to grow and harvest her own grapes — at least for the brand's white wines. The red grapes will be shipped in from parts of Maryland she says are better suited for growing those varieties.

"You can grow it" on Delmarva, Mariner said, "but that doesn't mean you'll get the best taste."

The Windmill Creek Vineyards & Winery, as the business is called, could open as early as some time in 2018. That will require approval from county officials to allow her to partner with another winery to process its earliest vintages. Tastings and sales will take place on her family's bucolic, 15-acre property near the community of Showell.

The winery's first vines should be planted this spring, Mariner said. It will take at least three years for the plants to produce fruit of enough quality and quantity for making wine.

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"I really want this to be a hub"

The county's director of economic development looks forward to that day.

"I think this winery is spot on as a viable business in the county," Merry Mears said.

Windmill Creek joins a growing list of attractions on the county's mainland that complement Ocean City's offerings, she said. The winery's location — tucked off Route 575, just north of the main east-west artery of Route 90 — lends relatively easy access for the 8 million visitors each year who make their way through the county to vacation on the beach, Mears said.

Mariner envisions wine lovers making a trip out of visiting both of the county's wineries, hers and Costa Ventosa Winery and Vineyard, which is a 6-mile drive away off Route 610 in Whaleyville.

"I really want this to be a hub for the county," she said. "I want everyone to be involved."

"I could make a business out of it"

On more personal terms, the venture represents a continuation of a family's — and region's — agricultural heritage.

The Mariners have been farming the tract and surrounding acreage for about a century, said Brittany's father, Barry. His father, also named Barry, was a farmer as well, but it was one of his hobbies that made the biggest impression on a young Brittany: making wine.

As his son tells it, the elder Barry would transform just about anything into wine: grapes, strawberries, dandelions. The process was a family affair, with each generation lending a hand. Dozens of unopened bottles remain cached away beneath his old home.

“I always made wine with my Pop Pop," Brittany Mariner said. "Before he passed, he ingrained in me that winemaking is something fun you can do on the farm. But he also put it in my head I could make a business out of it.”

Determined to turn winemaking into a career, she began attending Surry Community College in North Carolina in 2011. It was one of the few institutions at the time to offer a degree in viticulture and enology — the sciences behind growing grapes and making wine. While there, Mariner expanded her studies into the real world, working in tasting rooms and behind the scenes at wineries near the campus.

She could have followed most American winemakers and taken her skills to California. But if she had left for the wine mecca of Napa Valley, her wines would have been missing a key ingredient: her family.

Mariner wanted to work with her parents and on the family farm, even if the Eastern Shore's climate is less-than-ideal for raising grapes for wine. Most grape varieties are finicky; they don't do well with too much rain, heat or humidity.

Several wineries have proved it is more than possible to produce quaffable, notable vintages in the region. But the Lower Shore remains a viticultural backwater even in its own state. Of the 70 wineries in Maryland, three do business below the Choptank River.

Maryland, for its part, registers little more than a blip on America's wine radar. About one-tenth of 1 percent of all wine produced in the U.S. comes from the Free State, according to industry sources.

Mariner isn't deterred.

"I believe we can make good wine here, even if it's not California," she said.

Adaptable grapes

Working with the wine consultant John Levenberg, Mariner has selected three grape varieties for her 8-9 acres of plantings: chardonnay, sauvignon blanc and gewürztraminer. The unifying themes among the grapes are that they should adapt well to the Shore's soggy climate, and they all produce white wines.

The winery will make and sell red wine as well, but the grapes for those will come from elsewhere, she said.

The setting should play a big role in the business as well, said Mariner's mother, Jeannie. (She and Barry are 50 percent owners.) The old family home, portions of which may date back to as early as 1780, is under renovation. The Mariners don't plan to use it in the winery business, rather they are looking to either turn it into a weekly rental or a residence for Brittany.

At first, an existing shed will serve as the tasting room and processing facility. The long-term goal is to build a separate tasting room that resembles an old, Dutch-style windmill. Although the blades won't actually spin, the feature would tie the experience into the county's legacy of windmill-powered grain mills, Jeannie Mariner said.

A small stream near the rear of the property happens to be named Windmill Creek.

"We want to feel like when you step in this property, you step back in time," she said.

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