from the ground up
Winery club members and friends help to harvest the 2022 Cabernet Franc .
61 Vineyard
Where great wine and a family vibe intertwine
Drive along Kemptown Road close by — literally across the street in the Damascus , Maryland countryside and you ’ ll come upon 61 ily because other Giganti family
from their vineyard ! And fam-
Vineyard . Inside its unpretentious tasting room you ’ ll find a Now there are four generations
members live in close proximity .
warmly welcoming Pam Giganti or of family involved in Montgomery a Giganti family member happy to County ’ s newest vineyard . And the talk wine and set up some flights vibe of this friendly farm winery of their award-winning varietals . If says come on in and stay a while — there was a wine-centric version we ’ re all family here . of a family neighborhood pub , 61
What was that wild impulse
Vineyard might fit the bill . Neighborhood , in the sense that for the into grape farming ? For a self-
that caused the Gigantis to dive
last 30 years , 61 Vineyard owners described , high energy guy , who is Mark and Pam Giganti have lived always on the move , retirement —
by wib middleton a few years away — was going to have to keep Mark Giganti busy . Mark still commutes some 35 miles to Virginia for his day job as an executive and part owner in a residential home building business . Pam shares a background in the same industry . Home building is not for the faint of heart with its ups and downs . After a lot of travel and some reported enjoyable wine drinking by the couple , maybe growing grapes made sense ... a business also not for the faint of heart with lots of physical work and fraught with ups and downs . Research began and Mark started looking to the future — with grapes in mind . Pam was not so enthralled at first .
Pam says Mark is “ the dreamer in our relationship . He ’ s 10 years down the road and I ’ m about all about today ,” she laughs . She continues and tells the story that on a whim one Christmas she gave Mark the gift of “ wine camp ” in nearby Veramer Vineyard in Clark County , Virginia , run by owners Della and Jim Bogati , now good friends . Hoping it would cause Mark to shift from “ wanting to make his own wine to being quite satisfied drinking wine ,” Pam recalls , the opposite happened . After an entire weekend of sunup to sundown winemaking chores , Mark was sold on his dream .
The patience and resources required for grape farming can be daunting , especially if you ’ re new to it . Then there is the dice rolling , on your knees praying aspect of unpredictable weather patterns compounded by erratic climate change . But Mark and Pam decided to go for it anyway . Mark will tell you after getting their feet
32 plenty I autumn Harvest 2023