Fridays Creek Winery

Absolutely terrible experience with the volunteers at Kegs and Corks… Rich (the owner of Fridays Creek) did nothing to help the situation. Refused to serve us and were reported to corporate for the event. Terrible, never support them! Embarrassing display of customer service

What a find off the beaten path! This was a cool little place and at first was like um I don’t know If they know wines. We came on a Friday during the off season so we where the only two in the whole place. So we get helped out by one of the owners son and he was extremely helpful. So on to the wines, first off it was nice that they acutely have estate wine. That’s a plus considering people don’t know that you can import grapes and juice, which means as long as it’s made in the state boom Maryland wine. Estate is where they grow their own grapes, that is how you can taste the land. We tried all of the estate wines and for the most part these where done good.
I was impressed with the knowledge that our host had, he knew the special codes of what grapes they grew, cool! The best part was he quality checked all the wine before he poured ours, what can I say that is an awesome way to insure you get to taste the wine right and not some old oxidized bottle of juice. We will coming back in The spring and hopefully enjoy some warmer weather because they have some cool stuff bottled for the spring.

We visited this winery today and I have to say our visit was very pleasantly surprising! The tour was incredibly through, tons of information. This is about 99% family run and owned winery, which we thought was great. The wine, while not our favorite in MD, is probably in the top 3 or so. We only tried red wines ($ 5 for about 6 wines) and they were all pretty good. We ended up purchasing the American Barbara and a Blackberry fruit wine (which we didn’t try, but were intrigued). The bottle prices were really quite reasonable, given that you were purchasing at the winery. We expected them to be higher. The tasting was so full of information, it was amazing and super fun. We enjoyed a glass outside on the patio with our sandwiches. Totally worth the visit. Quite a beautiful garden around, lots of butterflies!

It’s spring and we were in the mood for lighter (sweeter) tasting. Not real heavy oak or tannins in most, very relaxed smooth tasting. We enjoyed the second level art as well. This will be a real gem once they get some years behind them.

I’m no wine connoisseur but bottles are reasonably priced and their outdoor space is relaxing. A nice surprise in the middle of southern MD.
I was out here for an event, and I can’t see myself rushing to get back. That’s only because I’m not huge on wine. If you’re into wine, and challenging your pallet, drive about an hour outside of D.C. and check this locally owned winery.

Nothing has changed about Fridays Creek since shawn g. FTR’ed them back in 2009, except there’s now a $ 5 tasting fee, and you can only select six of their 14 wines for sampling. When the six of us expressed our shock at 1) not being able to sample all the wines; and 2) having to pick six on our own, the girl working the counter said we could try all 14 for $ 10, which we opted to do. Wish we’d just stuck with six.
I couldn’t describe the wines better than shawn g. did, so I’m gonna plagiarize in the hopes that he subscribes to the old adage «Imitation is the highest form of flattery»: Fridays Creeks wines are «too fruit forward, sweet, and acidic.» Done and done. *Every* wine we tasted was slightly sweet, semi-​sweet, or really sweet. The ’08 Traminette smelled a bit like OFF and tasted like eating flowers. The Patio White tasted like grape juice, and the ’08 Vidal Blanc like tropical punch. Even the ’08 Merlot, ’08 Syrah, ’08 Old Vine Zinfandel, and ’08 Cabernet Sauvignon were sweet and thin, lacking any of the robustness one typically expects from those varietals. I did like the ’09 Rubilee, made from a GR 7 Hybrid grape out of Cornell University, a drier ’08 Chambourcin, and — surprisingly — the Plum wine, since it was more tart than sweet. And so many of the wines are made from juices imported from New York and California… it feels kind of like cheating.
The tasting room itself is nice, with an old, barn-​like feel true to its original purpose. But my favorite part about the whole tasting experience was browsing the art in the upstairs loft, with pieces created by area artists. Watercolors of ripe tomatoes or rusted-​out tractors, oil paintings of ducks or lily pads, black-​and-​white photo triptychs of farm scenes, colorful weavings, ceramic owls, stone jewelry. A great idea for wineries and local artists to partner up. Instead of purchasing any wines, we bought a ceramic tile featuring a small duck. Win!

While they do get a tip of the hat for offering free tastings of their 18 wines, and the venue is well done, the wines we tasted were too fruit forward, sweet, and acidic. The Patio White (one of their best sellers, was far too sweet, reminding me more of a muscat or a strong gewurztraminer. The Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Barbera, and Old Vine Zinfandel all needed more time to develop, and a few tasted like the bottles had been open for over a week. They have only been open three years, so hopefully in time their process will have settled in and the wines will take on a deeper more subtle flavor and develop a bit more body as well. Keep an eye on the time, since the winery closes at 5:00, but they stop giving the full tasting at 4:30pm.