Burnt Hill has recently been rated one of the most stunning vineyards in the country to visit this harvest season by Food & Wine.
When visitors arrive on the hilltop, they are treated to breathtaking views that overlook Montgomery County, Maryland, farm country, Sugarloaf Mountain and the Catoctin Range, and it is all just about an hour (with no traffic) from Downtown D.C.
“In August of 2016 I remember standing on top of this hill and looking out and sending some pictures to my friend who is the geologist, and to my sisters and saying, ‘I think I found it,’” Drew Baker, co-owner of Burnt Hill, said.
And since then, it has been a long and arduous process to bring to life the unique vision of a regenerative grand cru vineyard.
Baker told WTOP he thought Food & Wine’s assessment of the beautiful property was accurate and he was deeply honored to be recognized by one of the leading wine publications.
“It felt really good. And this is such a big project. So many people work so hard on it. And really, it’s just so cool to share that with our team,” he said.
The philosophy behind the farm is that since wine is not a necessity for sustaining life, they believe they have the highest moral obligation to farm in a way that improves the soil and watershed and leaves “this slice of the planet for the next generation in a better place than we found it.”
“We have been committed from the beginning to create, to our minds, a blueprint for using agriculture as a tool to improve this farm and the environment more broadly,” Baker said.
Because of this approach, the 117-acre farm is not only home to grape vines but also woodland hogs, long-wool sheep, an apiary, long-grown mushrooms, landrace grains, a vegetable garden and fruit trees.
“All of these things are working together in this symbiosis to not only not denigrate the environment, but to rebuild it,” Baker said.
And because of this method, Baker told WTOP they have created some exceptional wines from over 30 grape varieties. Visitors to Burnt Hill’s modern Scandinavian-inspired tasting room and lounge can try from their picks of classic Bordeaux varieties: cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot and Petite Verdot.
They will also pair that with delicious seasonal garden snacks prepared by chef Tae Strain, such as acorn squash soup, crisp apple fennel salad and red sourdough bread made on site with sesame brown butter and Burnt Hill’s own honey.
Soak up the scenery
Baker said Burnt Hill is trying to cultivate a place where wine lovers can just slow down, take a deep breath and take in the beautiful scenery. Both the tasting room and lounge have large full-length windows facing west that perfectly display the rows of grape vines, with mountain ranges and the sunset in the background.
“Then the guests also get the opportunity to learn something and to more deeply enjoy something, knowing how it was made, why it was done that way, why it matters,” Baker said.
“We call it paradise,” Baker said while looking at the view from the tasting room’s back porch.
If you do want to enjoy a Burnt Hill 2021 Regent, or any other of their delicious reds, you will have to visit the farm for a tasting. Their wines are not sold in stores, but you can join their club during a visit, and they will send bottles directly to your home.
“This is an estate wine project, which means all of our wine comes from this hill. It’s really limited. We’re really proud of it,” Baker said, adding that the vineyard is not looking to scale up its production. “We’re using this farm to grow food and wine. And then you come to the farm, and you experience it and that’s it.”
The estate offers weekend tasting experiences, and starting in December, a lounge experience that is a little more casual but still makes an excellent date night.
Baker owns Burnt Hill with his two sisters, Lisa Hinton and Ashli Johnson. The three came to this project with experience in the wine business: Their family opened Old Westminster Winery in Westminster, Maryland, in the wake of the 2008 financial crash as a way to save their family farm.
Nearly a decade later, the siblings began looking for their own project.
“Let’s go out and sort of take what we’ve learned on the family farm in Westminster, and start with a clean slate and sort of put into practice the things that we’ve learned in a really idealistic way,” Baker said.
They closed on the Burnt Hill hillside farm in December of 2016 and spent the next several years surveying and preparing the soil.
Vision alignment
The previous farmer who owned the land never had much luck growing corn, soy or wheat, because it is a rocky site
“That’s music to my ears, because grape vines want to send roots deep into the earth. You want vines to work hard. That’s how you get fruit ripe. That’s how you make especially great red wines,” Baker said.
The crew began planting in 2018 and had their first harvest three years later. Those grapes were aged for three more years and bottled this spring for their tasting room opening, which happened in early August.
Baker said working with his family has led them to develop special relationships, and while there may be some disagreements, the three have an aligned vision.
“What is the goal? Then if we disagree on how to get there, it’s still constructive,” Baker said.
Not only are his sisters his business partners, but they are also literal life savers.
Baker was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in 2022 and spent 450 days at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Both his sisters were donors for two separate bone marrow transplants.
First Hinton donated because she was the best match.
Then, five months after that transplant, Baker relapsed.
“They gave me a 5% chance to live, and they were trying a second bone marrow transplant, which is extremely rare,” Baker said.
His other sister, Johnson, provided the bone marrow for that one.
Now Baker just celebrated two years in remission.
“I think my cancer journey in particular gave me a lot of uninvited time to reflect on this life journey and how short it is and the blessing that it is to get to work on something so meaningful with people that I love and enjoy spending time with and uplift me,” Baker told WTOP. “I am just so deeply proud and happy to be here and get to do this every single day.”
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