This is Grant Lippman's first year running the Spouter Inn more or less on his own (his mother, Cathy Lippman, can't seem to stay away from the gardens). He's had a long apprenticeship since the Lippmans restored this 1832 house back in the 1980s and converted it into a bed-and-breakfast. Grant's father, Paul, is a proficient woodworker and sometime boatbuilder, and the beautifully joined and spar-varnished cabinets throughout the inn attest to his skills. His workmanship dovetails nicely with a variety of antique furnishings to strike the perfect blend of Maine farmhouse and nautical inn.
Looking to economize, we took the smallest of the inn's rooms, the Fo'c'sle, where Paul Lippman's cabinets in the small bathroom didn't seem at all incongruous with the room's Victorian dark walnut furniture.
Besides, we knew we weren't going to spend that much waking time up on the second floor, even with our great view of the sea. As soon as we checked in, we made a beeline to Cellardoor Vineyards in Lincolnville, the state's first farm winery. After a decade of harvests, the vines have matured sufficiently to produce some pleasant quaffing wine, especially the riesling and a vidal blanc that goes by the name "Vino DiVine." With crisp acidity and just off-sweet fruitiness, the vidal proved a perfect wine to sip during the evening when we rocked on the front porch and watched the island of Islesboro (just three miles across a narrow strait) appear and disappear in the fog. We weren't the first to rock and sip, rock and sip. The Spouter Inn has a guest refrigerator beneath a cabinet full of wine glasses and assorted corkscrews.
