It has been more than five years since the tasting room at 17912 York Road in Parkton, Maryland, was welcoming visitors to sit down and sample some wine.
Jessica Shearer, the owner and operator of Bull House Winery, is eager to give people a reason to come back.
“I chose to open a winery for various reasons,” she wrote in an email earlier Sunday. “Some are more interesting than others. Ultimately, I like to restore and give new life to things. I used to refinish furniture when I had more time and often found myself hunting out antiques when I went to yard sales and estate sales etc. [There’s] something special about the past and the time, care, and craftsmanship that people used to pour into things they created that draws me in.”
For more than three decades, the tasting room and, for a time, vineyard operated on the 18 acres of land on a farm that dates back to 1852. Al Copp was an integral part of the founding. His interest in wine production grew as a home winemaker and as a member of the Chesapeake Bacchus Club who wound up partnering with several other members and planting 3 acres of grapes along a southern hillside on Belfast Road in northern Baltimore County, according to “Maryland Wine: A Full-Bodied History.”
Woodhall would open in 1983, the ninth bonded winery in the state. Copp would be a fixture there until he died in early 2017, and it would close a few months later. Along the way, it would win several Governor’s Cups for superior wines and assume a rare footnote: The only Maryland winery and one of a just a few in the United States to makes wine from a red grape called Pinotage.
Within the year after the closure, Shearer said she had “suffered some personal losses that had me looking for something more to add to my life than the standard 9-5.” It took a year after the 2018 purchase for the home to be made habitable again. “I had a vision and knew it could be special,” she said. “I want to bring it back to life. It is on the Baltimore County Landmark registry. I want it to be a special place for my children to have an old-fashioned childhood, rolling in mud, exploring, playing outside and the winery is an opportunity to enhance its character and share it with the community and also bring people together. I grew up in a tight-knit neighborhood with ties to the school and church. I miss that, I think we are all missing the social aspect of life.”
A look at a couple of the photos that Shearer emailed will create some nostalgia for anyone who visited Woodhall Wine Cellars. She has made some tweaks to the tasting room, and there are more to come, but there remains a familiarity to that view from the front door through the main tasting area to the deck.
The winemaker will look much the same, too. Chris Kent, the longtime winemaker at Woodhall who is well known within the Maryland industry, is returning to his old digs. Overall, the winery is starting out with a half-dozen wines, including whites, reds and a rosé.
For now, the winery is open from noon to 5 p.m. Saturdays as Shearer gets her “feet wet” and builds interest while she continues to get adjusted and iron out any problems that arise. Shearer will help spread the word with an appearance at Drug City Pharmacy and Liquors on North Point Road in Baltimore from 6 to 9 p.m. on Dec. 7. The event is already sold out at a business that will be selling Bull House wines.
Shearer said a ribbon-cutting and official opening, with the help of the Maryland Wineries Association, will come early in the new year.
Under the About tab on the website, Shearer wrote that “People build. It’s what we do. We come together and create structures, relationships, and communities.” The purchase was made, it continues, with the intention of “breathing life back into its empty spaces and building a legacy for her family.”
She says that she knows that people have fond memories of Woodhall and she is hopeful that Bull House will replicate those memories.
“Truthfully, I didn’t grow up aspiring to make wine, but I’m glad I’m learning about it and I’m excited that it can open the door to new opportunities,” she said. “I found it to be a way to make many ideas come to fruition.
“I just kept taking the next step to building the business and making wine and now it’s time to open the doors ... ready or not!”
More:
Pa. winery’s 2nd generation set for release of her 1st sparkling wines
N.J. wines in Italy? Association toasting growth, future ventures
Explorer program continues to give consumers a sampling of Md. wines
After summer of uncertainly, Md. winery expects to open Pa. tasting room in spring 2023
Ad Choices