About us
Our Story
Our Story begins simply as a couple, Micki and Garry Cohen, who has loved wine for decades. We have and continue to enjoy wine with our meals, on picnics, and even just savoring it with family and friends. That was the initial motivation to learn how to craft it. We were encouraged with some early wine making success, and it pushed us to become more involved with our hobby. We quickly learned that to make a premium wine requires outstanding grapes and it was challenging finding available local fruit of the highest quality that was responsibly grown.
In 2011 we became serious about our passion. After completing a soil analysis we planted a small vineyard on our property in Middletown, Maryland; a beautiful rural area which is located in the south western part of Frederick County. The original 1/4-acre test vineyard was planted in April 2012 with types that we believed to be the best suited for our site. The vineyard has been expanded every year since and is currently 1.75 acres.
Our Mission
Our mission is to grow the finest wine grapes in the Catoctin American Viticultural Area or AVA. This AVA is geographically defined from the north by the Mason Dixon line, from the east by Braddock Mountain, from the south by the Potomac River and from the west by South Mountain.
The fermentation and aging process in wine-making are extremely important, however at least 80% of what you taste in the glass is what originates in the vineyard. To achieve our goal of crafting premium wines, requires managing our vineyard with a relentless focus on quality and an unending respect for nature. We devote enormous time treating each vine as an individual and know that our intensive pruning practices will yield outstanding fruit which in turn will evolve into outstanding wines.
Our Philosophy
Our philosophy is that to grow the most flavorful grapes requires that we remain in balance with nature. To help achieve this we maintain a glyphosate-free vineyard. Glyphosate is a general use herbicide and is designed to kill vegetation.
It is frequently used in vineyards to eliminate the need for mowing and trimming around the vines. One of the primary reasons we won't spray it is that we are convinced cultivating a beneficial cover crop under the vines moderates soil temperatures and produces more flavorful grapes.
We also remain unconcerned about the amount of grape that our vineyard produces in that we will routinely "drop fruit" or reduce our yields in our unending quest to develop grapes that express the area's terroir. For us, it is all about quality not quantity.
Naming the vineyard is something that we agonized over for several years.
We considered many options but nothing seemed quite right. A good friend recommended the name Mazzaroth but we were puzzled as we had never heard the expression before. Our friend explained that it originated in the Book of Job. Its literal meaning is the "star array", but could be translated as a set of constellations or perhaps the zodiac. We loved the mysterious biblical and astronomical references and, as luck would have it, the name was still available.
In a larger context, Mazzaroth means more than just a group of stars. Its reference implies that humans can't control or change the forces of nature. For a vineyard, you'll achieve harmony if you, the sun, the soil, the rain, and the vines all work together.
