Romano Vineyard and Winery

Romano Vineyard and Winery was founded in 2007 by Joseph and Jo-Ann Romano, but it all started as a family farm with a lot of happy honeybees.

Joseph and Jo-Ann had been keeping bees and harvesting honey on their farm since 1998. One hive became two and then eight, and the Romanos had more honey than their family could use. With a lot of encouragement from their daughters, Tiffany and Tarah, they started selling their delicious honey under the name Golden Leaf Farm. Life on the farm was good, and soon Joseph and Jo-Ann noticed that just about anything they planted, from their vegetable garden to wildflowers and clover for the bees, seemed to flourish in the fertile soils of Prince George’s County.

In 2006, when Joseph and Jo-Ann stumbled across a grant advertisement, looking for people willing to grow grapes for wine. They visited wineries all over Maryland to learn the business, researching grapes and tasting the state’s best wines before they finally decided to transform their corn and soybean field into a vineyard.