Tuesday at 11 a.m., too early for drinking wine but champagne is good any time. So I take a sip of this bubbling liquid –all made, from grapes to bottling, on the premises of Elk Run Winery in Frederick County, Maryland.

Now I am told by the connoisseurs we can’t call it champagne. That title is reserved for the champagne grown in the Champagne region of France. This is “sparkling wine,” with that light celebratory taste and just the right amount of sweetness that lingers like the smell of magnolia. Call it champagne’s American cousin.

Today is champagne bottling day, which concludes with a toast. I clink glasses with Fred Wilson, Elk Run owner and vintner.

This bottle, reflecting the work of two years, is cause for celebration. Satisfied with this batch Fred holds the glass up to the light to see the bubbles dancing up to the top.

Method champenoise

“You want the bubbles to be close together and keep flowing up.” Fred follows the methode champenoise, where there is a second fermentation that occurs in the bottle.

The methode champenoise, consisting of two fermentations, is complex and meticulous. In the first fermentation, the wine is made. In the second fermentation, yeast and sugar are added, which makes sparkling wine or champagne. For more on champagne making, read here.

No other winery in Maryland adheres to the official champagne method as strictly as Elk Run, Fred says. “It’s unique. One (winery) does it with grape juice. We do it with grapes we grow. Fermenting is mostly controlled the way we do it. You have to make sure it finishes the fermentation.

‘You can make champagne out of anything,” he explains. But his preference for this delicate drink is the Pinot Noir grape.

While he uses a machine to press the grapes and cork the bottles, much is done by hand, from planting to riddling, the process of gently rotating the bottles and keeping them at a 90 degree angle to collect the bits of yeast in the neck of the bottle. Fred riddles the bottles every day.

Since retirement in 1994, Fred has become a working expert in every aspect of wine-making with the help of his 32-year-old son Julian and Tory Hardy, an aspiring chef who comes on Tuesdays for bottling. He hires workers for harvest.

“Doing it by hand you can control it though machines are better now,” he says.

Today in a cavernous cool building, filled with oak barrels and steel vats, Fred and Tory have just finished the second and final stage of fermentation for 12 bottles.

The process is curious–earlier this morning, Tory and Fred put bottles of the wine in the freezer to chill the yeast particles, known as lees. When they carefully removed the plastic cap of the bottle, the lees are spilled out, or disgorged, and when the bottle is corked, the bubble-causing carbon dioxide is trapped in the clear wine liquid.

With the cork (and carbon dioxide gas) firmly in the bottle, Fred and Tory adeptly molded foil around the cork, and twisted wire around it. Then they applied the Elk Run label on the bottle.

With all those hours and time spent for this one bottle, Elk Run sparkling wine is a bargain at just $32 when you consider vintage 2002 Dom Perignon can cost over $500. It can be a bit hard to ship, so you have to go to Elk Run to buy it. However, most of the other wines are available to buy online here.

“We could add a few extra dollars but we want people to enjoy it,” Fred says. Elk Run manages to break even, with most of the profits derived from events and visitors for wine-tastings.

Starting with a historic tavern and two acres

Fred and his late wife Carol began Elk Run winery with another associate on two acres off rural Liberty Road near Mount Airy in 1979. “There were eight (wineries) then. Now there are over 100,” says Fred, with a hint of a southern accent from his native Hampton Roads, Virginia.

Maryland wines in those early days did not have the best reputation, especially compared to their California cousins. “That was true. There was no good wine in Maryland,” Fred notes. But things have improved with the collective expertise and enthusiasm of his fellow wine-growers in the state, he says. Elk Run has garnered numerous national and international prizes and distinctions.

Elk Run Winery is unique in the state in growing vinefera grapes, which are the varieties from Europe, in his vineyard that now encompasses 25 acres. It has Gewurztraminer, Riesling and Pinot Gris for white and Merlot, Pinot Noir and Syrah, among others, for red. Fred makes port, sweet dessert wines, and rose in addition to sparkling wine, chardonnay and pinot noir.

They made a hit at the first Maryland Wine Festival in 1989. In 2017, Elk Run earned 14 medals in the MidAtlantic Seasonal competition, including four gold medals.

As well-versed in fine wine as he is, don’t expect the stereotype of the wine connoisseur. Fred is as down to earth as the big Golden Retriever curling up at his feet in Elk Run’s wine-tasting room, where we settle to talk at a round table in a cozy room with well-worn Victorian furniture.

“We just got into wine and made trips up to New York and worked on the farm of Konstantine Frank in the Fingerlakes region of upstate New York. I helped out during harvest and during processing,” explains Fred.

Frank was credited with helping to start several wine businesses in Virginia. He served as mentor and advisor to Fred and Carol when they first started to grow grapes.

The couple found a house dating back to 1756 with two acres featuring soil of schist and shale, good for the drainage and deep roots needed for wine grapes, and elevations that protected the plants from frost. Appropriately, the handsome brick house had been a tavern, located along the old coach road from Pittsburgh to Frederick.

“The house was in good shape; it had bathrooms and heat,” notes Fred, with characteristic understatement. And it was within commuting distance of Fred’s job with the U.S.Navy in Silver Spring, Maryland

Sustainable vineyard

Elk Run uses sustainable methods of farming but cannot go entirely organic due to the hazards of humidity and too much rain which can cause black rot and diseased grapes. “We will use organic fertilizers as long as they work. But if it is too rainy those don’t work as well,” says Fred. They are careful and do not pick grapes until after the period that the toxins have biodegraded.

Very good years and bad years

The years have been up and down at the winery.

“I’m learning something new every year,” Fred says. There is a constant balancing act with the weather. He recalls 2007 as one of Elk Run’s best years and 2018 with drenching rains as one of the worst. 2022 was “pretty dry” so the wines will be good.

However, the last four years have taken a personal toll. Carol passed away from cancer, as did their child Katherine. The popular dessert wine Sweet Katharine is named for his daughter. Then Covid dried up the steady stream of visitors who have been the backbone of Elk Run’s business.

“We’re slowly getting back into the flow of things,” Fred says. “More people coming; more social media.”

Wine tasting

It’s a friendly fun place. When I was there, a couple arrived from Baltimore at 11 a.m. with lunch bags in hand. They ordered a charcuterie board and a sample tray of three small bottles. “This is our tenth or fifteenth time here. They know us here. I love the atmosphere, the dog, the wine. . .” says Maya Jackson Presley. With the help of Julian who works with marketing, Elk Run has planned events designed to draw from Baltimore, Washington and beyond.

Of all these aspects of wine production, what is the best part ? I ask Fred. He replies, “Drinking it.”

Elk Run is open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday. Most of the sales take place at the winery, but Breakthrough Beverage distributes it to fine wine shops in Maryland and DC. It is also available online. Sipping Saturdays and Sundays begin in May with free music and food trucks, 2-5 p.m. when you can sit outside on picnic tables scattered in a field adjoining the vineyard. A jazz weekend is planned for Father’s Day, June 18.

Fun facts about those bubbles

*Bubbles are caused by the interaction of yeast and sugar added to the base wine. The yeast eats the sugar and releases carbon dioxide. When the cork is removed, the CO2 is released as bubbles. *The bubbles in the original concoction were considered an accident. *Dom Perignon, the monk who was credited with discovering champagne, originally was charged with getting rid of the bubbles in champagne. The bubbles were causing explosions in the cellar. Workers were having to wear masks to prevent injury from the bursting bottles. *Now every bottle of good champagne must have bubbles, millions of them. There are approximately 49 million bubbles in a standard sized bottle of champagne.  * You get more bubbles if you hold the glass at an angle while you fill it. *For every carbon dioxide molecule that turns into a bubble in a glass of champagne, four others escape into the air. –compiled from https://glassofbubbly.com/champagne-facts-about-bubbles/