Corteau Vineyards
Corteau Vineyards is located in Mechanicsville, Maryland and owned by Peter, Gerald and Kathleen Byrne. Lyrel Byrne is the business manager and is also on the board of the Maryland Wine Association. The farm the vineyards are located on has been in the family since 1941, when Charles F. "Doc" Conrad purchased it. At that time it was a tobacco farm and in the 1990's, corn, grains and vegetables were grown instead. In 2004, Doc's children, Peter Corteau Conrad and Charles Conrad Jr., along with other owners and family members, planted their first vines. 25 different grape vines were planted as tests to see which grew best. Today they have 14 blocks in current production with varietals including cabernet franc, morvedre, gamay, vidal blanc and touriga nacional - a pretty unique combination for Maryland. Corteau has previously supplied grapes to wineries like the Port of Leonardtown, Xella and Catoctin Breeze. Currently they are using all of their grapes for their own winery. Certain wines are named after family members like Boots, which was their great uncle's nickname. During our visit in June 2025, we did a live tasting, which was conducted by the son, Charles. He was a wealth of knowledge and happy to answer all of our questions which we appreciated! Our favorites from the tasting were Boots, which is a white blend of albarino and viognier. It was low acid, with aromas of white flowers and grass and peach on the palate. The morvedre had flavors of cherry, cranberry and cinnamon, strong tannins and medium plus acidity. It just won silver at the Fingerlakes International Competition! The merlot is a blend of the 2022, 2023 and 2024 vintages and had cinnamon, vanilla and pepper aromas. Cherry and plum were on the palate and it had a lingering finish. A fun bonus during our visit was a vertical barrel tasting happening in the basement with vineyard manager, Callie, and Lyrel. We got to taste through a few years of morvedre and merlot while chatting with them about each. We saw the band for a few minutes on the way out. What an enjoyable visit.
