Sip, play, grow

Once empty fields at The Crossvines, ignored by maintenance staff and only touched when needed, now support a five-acre vineyard revealing an abundance of similarities between growing turfgrass and growing grapes. Through new hires, education and training, the facilities maintenance staff has provided an expansive opportunity for Montgomery County, Maryland, and its residents.

The Crossvines was previously known as Poolesville Golf Course, but with the vineyard opening, a rebrand was needed. The inspiration for the name comes from Maryland’s native crossvine, the Bignonia capreolata. The facilities website describes it as a “climbing vine, … a connector, reaching higher, blooming boldly, and providing nourishment to the world around it.” The vineyard and winery plan to do just that.  The moniker is also a metaphor for being the crossroads of industry — golf, wine, agriculture and economic development in a rural area.

Home to an 18-hole public course in Poolesville, Maryland, and located just 30 miles northwest of Washington, D.C., Crossvines is owned and run by the Montgomery County Revenue Authority, which also operates eight other golf courses. The property offers event spaces, frequently hosting weddings and events. Other MCRA courses include Falls Road, Laytonsville, Sligo Creek, Needwood, Northwest, Rattlewood, Little Bennett and Hampshire Greens — all Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuaries found throughout the 507-square-mile, highly populated county. 

The MCRA is a self-supporting Solutions Management company. The public corporation owns or operates the nine golf courses as well as the Montgomery County Airpark. They partner with private sectors and government agencies to help fund county projects, and have a focus on hospitality, agriculture and recreation. About 10 years ago, while brainstorming concepts to help the county grow, the current county executive Mark Elrich proposed the idea of wine. Entering the wine industry can be risky, winemaker Tyler Henley says. But the thought soon turned into plans and, after breaking ground in 2021, the Crossvines winery, vineyard, event center and Farmhouse Bistro opened in 2023.

The wine industry is booming in Maryland. In 2013, the state was home to roughly 64 wineries. That number now eclipses 100. The 2017 economic output for the industry was at $2.6 billion and is expected to exceed $4.28 billion in 2025. 

The grounds were first evaluated in 2017 to determine whether the site was ideal for grape growing. “It’s actually considered somewhat of a mediocre site,” MCRA director of agronomy Jon Lobenstine says. “It’s not ideal, it’s pretty flat.” Grapevines grow best in hilly landscapes. That evaluation didn’t stop them from moving forward with the project. Vines take three years to grow before being capable of producing a good harvest.

The first vines in the vineyard went up in 2019, measuring at a quarter-acre. The Chardonel vines (a hybrid of Chardonnay and Seyval Blanc) were selected because they are more tolerant of the disease pressure in the area and, Lobenstine laughs, “harder for me to kill.” The team reaped its first harvest on those vines in 2021. The grapes were processed and vinified in six different ways at the University of Maryland’s research facility in Keedysville, into a European Chardonnay wine under the direction of Joe Fiola, small fruit specialist for University of Maryland Extension.

Lobenstine oversaw the project and planted the first vines on the property with the help of superintendent Mike Otstot. He took time to learn as much as possible about growing vines, talking with local experts and vineyards and attending local and regional conferences. Prior to joining the MCRA staff, Lobenstine worked as second assistant superintendent for the Chevy Chase Club. “I’m the golf guy getting into the winery vineyard business,” Lobenstine says. “I wanted to learn how these things work, how they behave, what I need to do.”

The vision for the project was not just to plant a vineyard, but to develop into a research center and education hub. As the wine industry grows in the area, the MCRA saw an opportunity to jump in. Just as the vineyard was getting off the ground, The University of Maryland was welcoming its first class of fermentation science students in fall 2023, a program developed in part because of the Crossvines. The golf facility was then able to host a student intern from the winery program in fall 2024, and the first vineyard intern is in the works.

“This is a place potentially where we could also have hospitality students learning the catering and event business,” Lobenstine says. “There are a whole lot of different things we can do with this as an education hub for the region.”

Aside from traditional education with internships, the facility is helping grow the Maryland wine industry through research. The course is home to one of the biggest research vineyards east of the Mississippi River.

Wine is produced here from many types of vines including hybrids and vinifera. Grapes are grown here from the U.S. and Europe, with 19 different varietals grown on site, many of them far less common than your typical Cabernet or Chardonnay: Cab Volos, Merlot Kanthus, Sagrantino, Verdelho, San Marco and Tempranillo to name a few. Certain varieties don’t successfully grow in the eastern portion of the United States. For example, most French vines don’t have the same weather resiliency as native vines. “We’re trying to push the envelope so that people can maybe overcome these challenges by seeking out different types of grapes,” Henley says.

The vineyard works with neighboring states, including Virginia and Pennsylvania, as well as with the University of Maryland, discussing what’s working and what’s not. “We’ve all kind of got this Mid-Atlantic knowledge base going,” vineyard manager Daniel Larason says.

The vineyard land is cared for by Larason, who studied horticulture with a focus on viticulture. He grew up working on farms and worked at numerous vineyards before joining the Crossvines staff. “It was an opportunity to do some really cool stuff here, with 40 different clone and rootstock combinations of these varietals.” he says. “The rest is history.”

Unlike most vineyards out on the West Coast, Larason pays close attention to each vine and will hand-check each multiple times a year. On the West Coast, the vineyard business has become mechanized, using machinery and speed. “Here, you’re visiting the vine, catching it, you’re feeling it,” Henley says, “whereas over there, it’s more commoditized, in a general sense it’s deserts farmed with machines. Mechanization has its place, but here it’s a little bit more attention. It’s very grassroots here.”

The winery also uses their production equipment to act as an alternating proprietorship to produce wine for start-up wineries. A customer can contact the winery, bring in their own fruit, and the staff will process the grapes and bottle the wine. The bottles are then stored and sold out of a room in the winery building, offering a less expensive option for those hoping to start a winery. 

Wine processing equipment is expensive, and launching a true winery can cost millions of dollars. To start one, you must have at least 20 acres of land to approach profitability, and licenses are required. “We’re giving people an opportunity to break the barrier to entry,” Henley says. “Our clients’ wineries exist inside of these cages, so they’re basically renting space from us and borrowing our equipment and borrowing our tanks.”

The staff works with the customer to determine the type of wine produced, the number of bottles, cost and a detailed production plan to guide workflow and inputs. Larason himself rents a space, and through the system has been able to start his own meadery, producing four different meads at Crossvines.

Growing a vineyard requires being both proactive and reactive to changing weather conditions and surfaces. As does turfgrass. Henley says learning to grow both grapes and grass on the East Coast can prepare you for conditions across the United States. “Trying to grow grass in the Transition Zone comes with so many challenges,” Henley says. “I think you have to be a more well-rounded, very active superintendent, actively scouting, active with education, actively trying to predict all the stuff that’s happening. You’re always looking ahead.

“Wineries here on the East Coast, it’s almost a little bit more intense because you have to react to different things that happen here, where California is more consistent. We have a bit more challenging growing environment, which makes it so you have to get to know a lot more.”

Henley started in the wine industry almost 20 years ago. He has worked in Chile, spent many years in wine hot spot California, and moved to Virginia 10 years ago to work in the growing market.

One major difference between a golf course and a vineyard? “For a vineyard, you need to produce a crop,” Lobenstine says. “We’re not a sod farm. A sod farm is going to be fertilizing a lot more. We’re trying to fertilize as little as the grass requires to combat traffic and streamline cultural practices.” 

A superintendent’s job requires them to touch the grass every day. They must present consistent conditions, mowing often, treating diseases, checking soil levels. Both superintendents and vineyard managers must make decisions. In the vineyard, harvesting times change based on the end goal for the grapes and the desired acidity. As consistency is required in turf maintenance, it’s also necessary for winemaking. 

“In wine, you want to produce consistency, so when you have one year that’s dry and another year that’s rainy, you want to produce the same kind of wine one year from the next,” Henley says. In the Transition Zone, that can be difficult. Weather in California usually proves consistent, so the learning curve was a challenge for Henley, but that’s exactly what he came for.

Consistency on the Crossvines golf course wouldn’t be possible without Otstot. Otstot graduated from Delaware Valley College in 2012 and quickly moved south. He started as superintendent at the Crossvines in January 2019 after working at several courses in the surrounding area. Otstot led a renovation project that included replacing 29,000 feet of cart paths, as well as reshaping and adding new tee boxes, significant drainage improvements and driving range upgrades.

The course remained open for play through the cart-path renovation despite heavy machinery around the course. “The biggest challenge was how to stay open with doing such a massive cart-path renovation,” Otstot says.

He has worked to implement cultural practices and procedures to produce a high-level golf course. Lobenstine described Otstot as a go-getter. The first one to pick up a shovel. The first to offer help. “I pride myself in being a working superintendent,” Otstot says. That motivation has helped change the mindset of the maintenance department. 

“We’re not just a public golf course,” he says. “I want to be the best public golf course. I want to be the best golf course in the company. That was the challenge at first — getting the crew to buy into it. And I think after Year 2, Year 3, they really saw all the results of the hard work that we put into this place.”

The par-71 course features a choice of five tee boxes throughout an Ed Ault and Al Jamison-designed layout recently renovated by Joel Weiman Golf Design. The facility also maintains a two-acre short game area and driving range. An 11-acre irrigation pond runs through portions of the course and is fed by an upper, five-acre pond on No. 8, a par 3 over the water, reaching a green with bunkers shaped around the front-right and back-left sides. 

The course plays at 6,879 yards from the back tees and 4,549 yards from the front. It features three par 5s, the longest measuring 605 yards from the tips, a slight right shot with five bunkers on the way to the green.

Helping both the vineyard team and turf team is MCRA facilities and equipment supervisor Zachary Hill — referred to by Lobenstine as “the jack of all trades.” Hill has worked for MCRA for 10 years as an equipment manager. Now with the open wine processing building, event center and restaurant, his role has expanded. “Facility maintenance up here is quite extensive,” Hill says. 

The winery building uses specific systems for warming and cooling during the fermentation process, so he now handles unique equipment he didn’t previously fix. Hill, alongside the turf maintenance crew, works in multiple capacities on the property and at the MCRA’s other facilities.

“There’s a lot of efficiency here you wouldn’t find at a typical vineyard because we have the golf course operation and maintenance crew guys that can help in varying capacities,” Hill says. The turf team assists in spraying and mowing, both on the course and in the vineyard.

The winery now serves seven wines at the upscale restaurant, The Farmhouse Bistro, which was recognized as one of the Top 10 Best New restaurants in 2024 by USA Today Magazine. Many of the wines have been recognized already in state or regional wine competitions. Drinks include sparkling “Blanc de Blanc,” “Fairway” Rosé, “Front Porch” white blend, “Barn Door Red” red blend, “Celebration” sparkling rosé, a Cabernet Franc and a Merlot. The Cab Franc recently won the honor of Double Gold Best in Class red wine at the Mid-Atlantic Winemaker Challenge.  

The facility offers a championship-level course for golfers, a friendly atmosphere and a futuristic mindset for growing opportunities. As Lobenstine says, “It’s more than just a golf course.”

Kelsie Horner is Golf Course Industry’s digital editor.