A winery located on Maryland’s Eastern Shore is in the process of moving its operation to Pennsylvania’s Chester County.
Casa Carmen, a boutique winery with a tasting room at 312 Cannon St. in Chestertown, will keep the same name but add a new address by summer, Enrique Pallares said. He and his brother Felipe, who are also involved with The Wine Collective, which has been open for more than a year and a half in a Baltimore neighborhood called Hampden.
The brothers, who grew up in Ecuador, opened Casa Carmen in 2017. Its list of dry varietals and blends is all produced at The Wine Collective, where Enrique is a managing partner and general director and Felipe is a managing partner, director of operations and culinary director. Winemaker John Levenberg is the other of the founding partners.
Enrique said the new Pennsylvania property in is West Grove, off Route 1 and in the proximity of Jennersville Hospital. In addition to planting a 5-acre vineyard that will offer some room to expand, they are renovating a barn on the property and turning it into the tasting room. They also plan to put in a botanical garden to help supply the ingredients for the vermouths they currently make and offer for sale at Casa Carmen and The Wine Collective.
They will keep their tasting room in Chestertown open, Enrique said.
The original idea called for a vineyard and tasting room on a farm they had bought outside Chestertown, but zoning issues KO’d the full scope of those plans. While the current tasting room is plenty cozy, it lacks the room to grow, leaving the brothers with the decision to “going bigger or going home kind of thing,” Enrique said.
So they sold that farm and instead expanded their search to southeastern Pennsylvania, and found a property they were able to purchase between Chaddsford and Oxford. “The [new] property has tons of character,” Enrique said, “and a nice little slope on the side, which will be great for the vineyard.”
In terms of finding a sweet spot, a number of other wineries are located nearby, including Galer Estate, Chaddsford, Penns Woods and Va La.
Among the wines on the Casa Carmen list are varietals (Gruner Veltliner and Viognier), a rosé and several red blends, including one called Gitano ($34/bottle) that features Merlot (34 percent) with complementary amounts of Syrah, Cabernet Franc and Tannat. There is also food available. You can access the full menu here.
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