Unique Experiences

Item Description

This Gift Certificate entitles the bearer to a Private Tasting & Tour for 12 people at Woodhall Vineyards and Wine Cellars, located north of the Gunpowder River on York Road in Baltimore County.  Learn how wines are created as you sample some of Maryland's finest table wines, including Seyval, Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and others.

These tastings are generally conducted on weekends at 12, 2, and 4pm or at the end of the day during the week.  A 6pm tasting is available if reservations are made for the restaurant.  You can enhance your experience with hors d'oeuvres, lunch, or dinner prepared by The Restaurant at Woodhall, located immediately adjacent to the winery.  You will also receive a $25 Dinner Coupon.

Woodhall produces a full range of table wines from Maryland grown grapes, including dry, sweet, and dessert styles. The wines are segmented into three groups, each delivering good value: inexpensive everyday wines; mid-priced premium wines; and rich, complex super varietals. Woodhall wines carry recommendations for use with food, generally through the use of a back label.

Three Woodhall wines, Seyval, Riesling, and Copernica Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon have been selected as Best-of-Show wines at the Maryland Governor's Cup Wine Judging. Woodhall Riesling was selected by the Goddard Space Center as one of three "40th Anniversary" wines. Maryland Public Television selected Woodhall's Cabernet Sauvignon as its "30th Anniversary" wine. Woodhall Seyval was the "Aquarium White" of the National Aquarium in Baltimore and most recently, the 2001 Cabernet Sauvignon was selected by the National Federation for the Blind as the dedication wine for it's new training center in Baltimore.

Woodhall wines are fermented in small lots, keeping the fruit from each vineyard separate, so that Woodhall's blending program can take maximum advantage of "terroir" (the effects of climate and soils on fruit, hence wine, quality). The wines are aged in barrels and bottles until ready for consumption.  They are never released prematurely. All Woodhall wines but two are blends of grapes from different sources or of different varieties depending on which gives the best aroma, flavor, and taste characteristics. The two exceptions, so far, are a single vineyard Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon from Copernica Vineyard in Northern Maryland and a single vineyard and Reserve Vidal Blanc from Golden Run Vineyards in Sudlersville.

Each Woodhall wine must be impeccably good to reach market. Therefore, not every varietal is vintage-dated every year (e.g. there was no 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon). Sound varietal wines with non-varietal characteristics become blending components of generic wines. On the other hand, when certain years produce superior fruit, the wines from that fruit receive special recognition as "Reserve" wines (1991, 1995, 1997, 2002, 2005, and 2007 Copernica Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon); a 2004 Copernica Reserve Cabernet Franc; and a 2006 Golden Run Reserve Vidal Blanc, and "Estate Bottled" wines (the 1999 and 2001 Gunpowder Falls Chardonnay). In both the red and white wine programs, a certain hierarchy of decision making takes place. Barrels are tasted first for individual quality, then a decision is made as to the presence of a Reserve quality wine. Then the quantity and blending balance of the varietals is decided. Any wine still remaining finds its way into the non-varietal red blends. Tours and tasting include barrel samples of various wines upon request. Each year during February's Barrel Tasting, Woodhall selects wines for a special "Futures" offering, affording the public an opportunity to taste and purchase wine not yet bottled at less than market prices.

Item Special Note

Tasting will be scheduled at a mutually convenient time.

Reservations required.

No expiration.