Family permeates everything at Loew Vineyards near Libertytown.
Rachel Loew Lipman is a fifth-generation winemaker and meadmaker who oversees the operation.
She said she hopes to pay tribute to the vineyard that bears her grandparents’ name by becoming the first certified kosher — in line with Jewish law — winery in the state of Maryland.
William Loew and Lois Loew, Rachel’s grandparents, sold their first small batch of wine in 1986.
William was born Wolf Löw into a family who owned at least five meaderies by the 1930s in Lwów, Poland, now known as Lviv, Ukraine, according to research by Rachel and Lois.
Rachel said that at the time, mead was as Polish as it was Jewish, and her family was firmly in that tradition.
Loew Vineyards received an agricultural innovation grant from Frederick County to purchase a steam generator, two pumps and a boiler for small equipment.
The meads that include just honey or that also add apple cider will be certified kosher by Star-K, a kosher certification agency based in Baltimore.
The wines and meads that include grapes will be certified kosher by Conservative Jewish standards by Rabbi Jordan Hersh of Beth Shalom Congregation in Frederick.
Star-K certification is considered a higher standard of kosher certification, as it requires only that observant Jews handle the grapes from when they are crushed until when they are bottled.
Hersh said his role will be to supervise the kashering — the process of making something kosher, which originally was aimed at distinguishing products made by idolators.
That process includes thorough cleaning, which is why the vineyard needed the grant-funded equipment.
“We wouldn’t have been able to do this otherwise,” Rachel said.
She said the process of making wine and mead would be largely unchanged as the vineyard moves toward kosher certification. The bulk of the changes will come from the cleaning process.
Hersh said this will be the first business for which he has overseen this process, and there might be others.
“But we are excited the first one will be wine because it is so central to Jewish culture,” he said.
Among other traditions, Kiddush — a blessing — is recited on Shabbat, the Sabbath, over wine, and four glasses play a critical role in the Passover seder.
“Wine is used to sanctify time in the Jewish tradition,” Hersh said.
Since Rachel moved into a bigger role following her grandfather’s death, the vineyard has ramped up production.
In 2019, Loew produced 735 cases of wine, followed by 1,001 the following year, according to Rachel.
Since then, production has increased to around 2,400 to 2,600 cases annually.
“We jumped pretty quickly,” Rachel said.
Adding to the uptick was a 2021 remodel of the winery that now includes six tanks for white wines and nine for reds.
Rachel said that in order to maximize their 1,400-square-foot production space, the tanks for white wines were custom made in Croatia to be square to better use space and outpace industry standards for casks of wine per square foot per year.
“Square tanks can’t cut corners,” she said.
She said the kosher certification would not prevent non-observant communities from enjoying the wines and meads, but would allow the vineyard to reach new communities, as well.
She added that the business has received calls from groups inquiring about whether the wine was kosher after learning about the Loew family history and ties to European traditions.
Family history
Malka and Meilech Löw began producing mead in Bursztyn, Poland, in 1870, shortly after the loosening of laws that barred Jews from participating in the broader economy, according to family research.
Loew Vineyard continues to make a mead called Malka in the matriarch’s honor. It is made in the traditional Polish method featuring local wildflower and clover honey, and is barrel aged for a year.
Malka received the 2025 Judge’s Selection and Best of Show in the Mead or Honey Wine category at the TEXSOM International Awards.
Rachel said the meads she makes still use the traditional methods from that halcyon age. The vineyard continues to use a custom-made device William made that rigged a keg with a heating element.
Hersh said that during the late 1800s and early 1900s, “industrialized food systems created a need for more intensive supervision” just as Jewish businesses played a bigger part of the broader economy.
Wolf Löw grew up in a thriving Jewish community among meaderies, meat vendors, breweries, markets and other businesses.
Rachel said her grandfather maintained a sharp mind throughout his life and remembered details of the flowers along railings in the neighborhood of his childhood.
She said he always remembered how life changed after Kristallnacht, when Nazi paramilitary forces destroyed over 7,000 businesses and over 1,400 synagogues and prayer rooms in November 1938.
Also, 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and taken to concentration camps.
Wolf escaped Poland and joined the underground resistance in Hungary.
There, he was captured and imprisoned at the Budapest Political Prison before being transported to the Auschwitz Concentration Camp, according to the family research.
After five months, he was transported out of Auschwitz to Flossenburg, before being liberated by the 99th Infantry Division of the U.S. Army.
Poland became a vodka producer under Soviet influence.
LONE SURVIVOR
The tradition of Jewish, Polish meaderies was decimated by World War II.
“Everything was destroyed, even the people,” Rachel said.
Wolf was the lone surviving member of the Löw family.
He moved to the U.S. and began going by William Loew — the Americanized version of his name.
William met Lois in Indianapolis, Indiana, while working as an electrical engineer.
In March 1982, they found 37 acres of soil in Frederick County as William sought to revive the family tradition.
The Loews helped form the Maryland Grape Growers Association and Maryland Wineries Association with other growers.
Lois said local wineries look out for each other rather than compete.
“Who are you going to call when you need a thousand corks?” she said with a laugh.
Janna Howley, executive director of the Maryland Wineries Association, said Rachel is an “active member” of the organization’s board of directors.
Howley added that Rachel is always educating.
Rachel said continuing to use the traditional methods and becoming certified kosher are a big part of keeping history alive.
She said learning further details about her family’s story continues to be a passion, even though “it’s not always easy to hear.”
“It brings memory to life,” Rachel said. “It’s all connected.”
The 2025 Nouveau is expected to be the vineyard’s first certified kosher wine following its November release.
“What really is the heirloom is the experience,” Hersh said.
