Deep Creek Cellars and Winery near Deep Creek Lake Maryland with Award Winning Maryland Wines

The Wines of Deep Creek Cellars

Deep Creek wines are modeled on the rustic country wines of Europe. You'll find less oak aging, more floral bouquet, and more inviting fruit flavors than you may be accustomed to in most American wines. Many customers who arrive not liking dry wines leave with armfuls of ours because Deep Creek wines are always fruity and friendly. Even our wines that can improve with age are enjoyable upon release.

We use only traditional Old World techniques in the cellar, wild yeasts supplied by nature on the grapes for fermentation, and natural cold-clarification. Deep Creek wines are pure, lively, and never overly manipulated. In an age when "hand-made" has become a widely abused claim, our wines are truly low-tech. We rarely filter and use only minimal amounts of sulfite preservatives -- and we offer no-sulfite bottlings for regular customers who request them.

Release of wines from the 2007 vintage, which featured the most ideal growing conditions of a generation in Eastern America, began in February 2009. They mark the third consecutive superlative vintage at Deep Creek Cellars, causing us to selfishly say that if this is global warming, we can adjust! In general, the 2007 wines are plump and generous. With super-ripe grapes, the temptation was great to smash all technical boundaries in greedy pursuit of flavor, tannin, and extract; yet, good sense prevailed, and wines with a sensual purity of fruit resulted. They are delicious upon release, and they will age beautifully.

*2006 Artisan Red*
70% Cabernet Franc, 20% Malbec, 10% Norton. Featuring Virginia and Maryland-grown fruit (except for the California Malbec), and subbing Norton for the Gamay of the original Loire Valley concept, comes the ultimate "bistro red" — pretty spices, with dark and red fruits on the palate, and a seamless texture. Unfiltered, no oak. A bigger-bodied ’07 (still brooding in our dark cellar) to surface mid-summer 2009. *$10.95*
*2007 Watershed Red Reserve*
88% Cabernet Franc, 8% Petit Verdot, 4% Malbec. We're taking the outlandish step of releasing two versions of this wine — one now (Feb. 2009) and one in mid-’09. Label text distinguishes each. Some people love the hurly-burly early version of our most popular wine, which is styled for decadent thrills right now, and some prefer the calming effect of the extra-cellaring. Both are bold, rich, raspberry-riddled Cab Francs from a dynamite vintage, with a touch more oak than usual. Here we achieved great depth, flavor, and concentration without California-style soupiness. Local fruit, feels like Burgundy. *$14.95* *Pinot Schmino ~ Blog on Our Cabernet Franc Wines*
2005 Old Vine Zinfandel (Sorry, Sold Out; Keep Checking!) 88% Zinfandel, 6% Cabernet Franc, 6% Grenache. Here is the red for oak lovers in 2005; barrel aging adds a creamy cocoanut/vanilla topping to the blackberry-cedar character of this perennial Deep Creek favorite. Except for some of the Cabernet Franc, grapes used for this wine are entirely from California. These 50-year-old Zinfandel near Lodi are, in our view, a national treasure that we are honored to vinify. Serve this rich, yet surprisingly subtle wine with hearty foods, especially from the grill. $15.95
*2006 Ursa Major* 80% Norton, 17% Zinfandel, 3% Cabernet Franc. Our super-premium reserve red is named for its bear-like black color and richness, and also as a tribute to the regal creatures that roam our wilds. To the Greeks and Romans, the bear was the figure of female compassion, a belief derived from observing the mother’s care of her tiny cubs. In the classical world, the bear appeared as a goddess wearing a bear mask, the very symbol of the Great Mother of all creation. Her strength and intelligence, her maternal instinct, her ability to stand human-like on two feet, her understanding of the passing seasons in the natural world, her amazing ability to hibernate, have all contributed to the bear mythos in cults and religions throughout human culture. Oh Yeah, the wine: Lush and easy to cuddle, our third Ursa release is brimming with zingy Virginia Norton elderberry/Jolly Rancher grape flavors, grafted to the near-sweet briery background of old vine California Zin. BTW, for anyone counting, this is the only known blend of the East and West coasts' most cherished cult grapes. $19.95
Yellow Jacket White Fruity, semi-dry, with luscious flavors of white peach and pears. Yellowjackets love anything sweet and any person who likes sweet things will swarm on this wine. Enjoyable as an apertif, or with light cuisine. $10.95
*Blue Dolce Port* (375ML) Wildly popular, vividly blueberry dessert wine. *$12.95*
2007 White Linen Reserve 85% Chardonnay, 10% Vidal, 5% Seyval In case you're checking here to learn how a wine made by some hayseeds in rural Maryland most resembles a village wine from the Auxerre of France — ding, ding, ding, you will now unlock the mystery… We picked Chardonnay from northern Virginia slightly before what most people would consider peak ripeness in this torridly hot vintage, which saved the natural acidity and made for modest alcohol, then fermented slow and cool, then aged the wine on its yeasty lees for seven months, then blended and bottled without filtration. That's how — that's why it seems like Chardonnay from Chablis, because we're chasing the same innocent yet naked fruit. Pinpoint-focused, mineral-cool, hyper-food friendly, with a meringue-like lightness on the finish all our own — a righteous rebellion against the oceans of lame New World fruit cocktail confabs running down the good name of Chardonnay these days. Look for the storied honey flavor of Chablis after a few years in bottle — all at a bargain. $12.95
Coming soon in 2009 Two Glade Run dry pinks, the first wines of the excellent 2008 vintage: #1, a Maryland-appellation gris de gris (rosé from Pinot Grigio) and #2, our Garrett County estate-grown from Cabernet Franc. If You Can't Make it to the Winery, Where Can You Find Our Wines?