bottle it up: make your own wine in maryland

When I first met my co-writer on the blog, Meghana, she made sure I knew how important wine is to her family. Compared to the rest of the early-twenty-somethings in our dorm, Meg had a finer taste for alcohol in general. My sorority girl soul was shocked when she revealed she had never tried Fireball, which at the time was my preferred shot (it was dark times). I have always been interested in wine, but only if it tasted like a capri sun. Fast forward half a decade, and I think my tastes have advanced with Meg’s (and in turn, hers have slightly regressed to match mine), and I find I have a new appreciation for wine. 

One of the first times I visited Meg and her family in Maryland, I was invited to a wine bottling. I had no clue what I was in store for me. Now I won’t go into the science or the actual technical process of wine making, because I have only ever been present for the actual bottling portion, but I do fancy myself a bit of an expert on the vibes of bottling. The bottling takes place at TinLizzie WineWorks, a facility in Maryland dedicated to teaching individuals the entire journey of winemaking. From the shipment of grapes to the art of fermentation, their ardor for winemaking is truly infectious. 

On the actual bottling day, the process is broken down into roughly four steps. The first step is to disinfect the inside of the bottles so you don’t get casal botulism. With that critical step out of the way, the real magic commences. The second step is my personal favorite because you get to fill the bottles using the fancy siphoning machine. I always feel like a wizard filling his spell bottles when doing this step. It can be a bit nerve wracking because you essentially set the pace for the rest of the line.

Next, we come to the corking station. They have a manual corker where you use a big leaver to push in the cork. Finally, there is the foil station where you add the final garnish to the bottles using a heating device. Although I am sure this step is lovely during the Maryland winters, during our normal August trips it is not a popular role. 

A sweet goodbye to summer…

Although I don’t use this phrase often, I feel truly blessed to have been invited to these bottlings. There is such a sense of camaraderie as the bottles fill, and the time always seems to pass quickly. I think this truly is a testament to the warmness of Meg’s family, and the community they have built through their friendships. It really is amazing to be part of the team to get every bottle filled (plus, a few glasses of wine doesn’t hurt to increase enthusiasm). 

These trips to Maryland are now a fun tradition that makes capping off the end of summer a little extra sweet. Who knows, there may be a future post about me commissioning my own barrels of wine from Tin Lizzies!

You can learn more about the winemaking process with TinLizzie’s on Meg’s blog and youtube channel:

Playlist of the process

Rosé bottling 2019

Syrah bottling 2017

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