Last week, my wife and I decided to take a break and pack up the family truckster to head for Niagara Falls with the kids.  To save a couple dollars, we usually pack some wine with us for our hotel room.  However, since we were heading outside the US, we decided that we would purchase our stash once we crossed the border to avoid any issues with the Canadian Border Control.

Being that this was our first trip to Canada, I wasn’t familiar at all with how and where I could purchase wine.  I soon found out that the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) is the government – owned corporation that controls the sale of liquor, wine, and beer through a chain of retail stores in Ontario.  Established in 1927, LCBO stores are generally the only place that is allowed to sell hard liquor in Ontario. 

With that being said, after a 9-block trek on a very cold and rainy night to a local wine & spirits store (don’t worry the wife and kids were warm and dry in the hotel room), it didn’t take long for me to figure out my options:  Locally produced VQA born and raised wines from Ontario and nothing else!  Now I’m no stranger to drinking locally-bred wine, and I fully intended on trying plenty of Canadian wines, but damn – this was the very first time that I’ve ever stepped foot into a wine & spirits retail store and stared over such a massive army of locally-bred wines.  They had it all – Dry, Sweet, Red, White, Blushes, Sparkling, etc…and all 100% Canadian Vino! 

So, when in Rome…  I picked out a few whites and a few reds all costing around 20 US dollars and opted to save Canada’s famous Icewines for later. 

Out of the few wines that I purchased, only one of them left a lasting impression on me – the 2008 Fielding Estate Winery Pinot Gris.  It possessed outstanding crisp acidity with pear and apple flavors, and was overall just a well-made and delicious white wine.  As for my red wine selections, well… they were all relatively mild and lacked complexity found in similarly priced wines from other parts of the globe.   After this first experience with Ontario reds, I was beginning to wonder if bold red varietals just didn’t grow well in this particular microclimate…

Fast forward to our last day in Ontario.  Besides seeing The Falls and visiting the other tourist attractions in Ontario, my wife and I were also hoping to sneak in a pit stop or two along the Ontario Wine Trail.  However, if you’re parents of young children like us, then you probably know that visiting a winery is about as much fun for the kids as the 8 hour drive to Canada – it’s long, boring and they can’t wait move on to something more exciting like say… a 3-acre indoor water park! 

With this in mind, we decided not to torture our kids with multiple winery stops.  So on the recommendation of some WineLife365 fans we decided to make our one and only visit to the Inniskillin Winery! 

Not only did Inniskillin blow us away with their killer Icewines, but they also debunked any passing thought I may have had about the lack of bold reds in Ontario.  Inniskillin proved, without a shadow of a doubt, that the classic cool climate viticulture region of Ontario is also suited for growing outstanding Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Riesling, as well as, Cabernet Franc, Merlot and even Cabernet Sauvignon. 

Here’s a list of the Inniskillin wines that had us cheering and waving the Canadian Flag:

1.      Inniskillin 2008 Legacy Riesling ($30 US) A world-class Riesling capable of holding its own against the best of ‘em.

2.      Inniskillin 2007 Reserve Series Cabernet Franc – At $17 US dollars, this Cab franc is a great buy packed with dark fruit and nice spices. 

3.      Inniskillin 2007 Winemaker’s Series Merlot – ($22) Concentrated, long finish and still has me scratching my head saying, “Ontario, Canada – Really?!”  Great juice and terrific winemaking!

4.      Inniskillin 2007 Winemaker’s Series Cabernet Sauvignon – ($25) Huge, rich - tastes like a big Napa Cab.  Very approachable now, but also age worthy.

5.      Give credit where credit is due… after trying the above four wines, Inniskillin’s fabulous array of Icewines is the icing on the cake!  Each one was a total powerhouse!

One final note about our visit to Inniskillin Winery - I’d like to give thanks to Mr. Jonathan Medhurst for an outstanding and insightful tasting experience, and a special thank you to my wife for keeping the kids entertained while I tasted through these terrific wines!

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Most of the states’ wineries are located in the more rural parts of New Jersey where the soil is more conducive to raising the kinds of grapes necessary to make a wide range of varietals and fruit wines.  Nearly all of the states‘ wineries have tasting rooms for you to sample there wines. In most cases, when inside the tasting rooms, you will be chatting with the very people who have grown, picked and crafted the wines that you’ll sample. 

Over the past five years, many New Jersey wineries have been garnering their fair share of medals in both national and international wine competitions. Earlier this year, a New Jersey Riesling won Best of Class and a Double Gold in San Francisco.  Last March, a unoaked Chardonnay won Double Gold as well as a Best of Class in the prestigious International Finger Lakes Wine Competition.  In acknowledgement of this achievement, the New Jersey state legislature last year declared November as New Jersey Wine Month. 

If you do decide to visit New Jersey’s wineries, you may wish to visit more than one. Many of the state’s wineries are literally within minutes of one another.  Yet, despite their proximity, many offer wines that are completely different from their neighbors’.  When visiting, be sure to ask about the Garden State Wine Growers Association Passport.  If you have your passport stamped at each of the New Jersey wineries, you’ll be eligible to win a trip to Bordeaux, France.

To better plan your visit the New Jersey Wine Growers’ Association website.  You can also go to the site for a statewide map of the vineyards.  

Listed below are some regional clusters along with the mileage and times it will take you to get to one another according to MapQuest:

Atlantic County Cluster

Amalthea Cellars to Sharrott Winery – 12 minutes and 7.58 miles

Sharrott Winery to Tomasello Winery – 8 minutes and 4.4 miles

Tomasello Winery to Plagido’s Winery – 5 minutes and 2.07 miles

Plagido’s Winery to DiMatteo’s Winery – 4 minutes and 1.76 miles

DiMatteo’s Winery to Valenzano Winery – 23 minutes and 15.31 miles

Cape May Cluster

Natali Vineyards to Hawk Haven Vineyards – 14 minutes and 9.77 miles

Hawk Haven Vineyards to Cape May Winery & Vineyard – 6 minutes and 3.46 miles

Cape May Winery & Vineyard to Turdo Vineyards & Winery – 2 minutes and 1.23 miles

Cumberland Cluster

Coda Rossa Winery to Bellview Winery – 9 minutes and 5.89 miles

Bellview Winery to Swansea Vineyards – 41 minutes and 29.34 miles

Gloucester Salem Cluster

Wagon house Winery to Heritage Vineyards – 6 minutes and 3.62 miles

Heritage Vineyards to Cedarville Winery – 11 minutes and 6.95 miles

Cedarville Winery to Auburn Road Vineyards – 15 minutes and 8.79 miles

Shore Cluster

Silver Decoy Winery to Cream Ridge Winery – 10 minutes and 6.45 miles

Cream Ridge Winery to Laurita Winery – 12 minutes and 8.79 miles

Laurita Winery to 4JG’s Family Winery – 43 minutes and 26 miles

Sussex Cluster

Cava Winery & Vineyard to Ventimiglia Vineyards – 13 minutes and 7.58 miles

Ventimiglia Vineyards to Westfall Winery – 20 minutes and 14.32 miles

Warren Hunterdon Cluster

Four Sisters Winery to Alba Vineyard – 39 minutes and 19.42 miles

Alba Vineyard to Villa Milagros Vineyard – 1 minute and .80 mile

Villa Milagros Vineyard to Unionville Vineyards – 43 minutes and 29.16 miles

Unionville Vineyards to Hopewell Valley Vineyards – 15 minutes and 10.66 miles

Elsewhere in New Jersey

Other NJ wineries include the Renault Winery in Egg Harbor, which is one of the oldest continually operating wineries in America, and the Brook Hollow Winery in Columbia, right on the border of Pennsylvania in the Delaware Water Gap.

If you’ve never tried a New Jersey produced wine and are looking for an out of the ordinary day trip to take, then mark down a date on your calendar and visit one or several of the fine wineries in New Jersey!

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The annual Cape May Wine Festival will be taking place on October 10^th and 11^th, from 12-5 p.m. at the Cape May-Lewes Ferry Terminal, overlooking the Cape May Canal and Delaware Bay.

More than 20 New Jersey wineries will be on hand to offer guests some of the finest locally produced Chardonnay, Chambourcin, Syrah, Marechal Foch, Viognier, Traminette, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon. There will also be a large array of fruit wines such as raspberry, cherry, and blueberry to satisfy sweet wine lovers.

In addition to wine sampling, festival goers will be treated to live music, various types of vendors, and a “Kids Zone” for those who are bringing the whole family.  Festival attendees can also take advantage of “Victorian Week” which will be running through the end of Sunday.

  
Anyone interested in learning more about this particular festival can call The Garden State Wine Growers Association at 609-588-0085 or visit their website. 

With the weather in the Northeast being nearly perfect, this should be a truly relaxing and enjoyable event.  

Cheers!

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Once finally inside the historic Village at Allaire, I could see why this is New Jersey’s largest wine festival.  The grounds within the Village at Allaire is a beautiful venue for hosting this event; with it’s mature trees, historical buildings, iron works shop, general store, bakery, and a locomotive train that guests can ride.

As we made our way up to the wine, food and music area; it was amazing to watch the large crowds of people hustling with their wine glasses from one tent to the next.  One gentleman that was working at this event told us that over 8,000 people attended the festival the day before.

Even with the large crowds, there were several New Jersey wineries that were up for the challenge of keeping glasses full and purple-inked smiles on the sea of faces that lined up at their tasting tables.  One particular New Jersey winery that nearly accomplished this single handedly was Auburn Road Vineyard & Winery.  Ms. Julianne Donnini was absolutely incredible as she poured and kept perfect track of what everyone was drinking, while still being able to talk about the wines that she was pouring.  One of the wines that Ms. Donnini poured for us was called Classico.  As you might have guessed by its name, this red wine is a New Jersey inspired Super Tuscan and it was absolutely delicious for $18.99 a bottle.

As my wife and I made our way around to the other wineries’ tasting tents, we had an equally good experience with the folks at Heritage Vineyards.  Our pourer from Heritage effortlessly filled glasses with some really great wines while engaging wine lovers in conversation.  In the course of tasting the Heritage Vineyards line-up, there were several wines that we felt delivered exceptional value and great taste.  First, was the Steel Rails Red.  This wine was a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and Merlot.  It had rich flavors, and for $12.99 was a great value.  We also enjoyed their wine called “Red Caboose” which they were selling for $18.00.  This wine sported the same Bordeaux blend as the Steel Rails Red, but had a touch of Chambourcin grape in it to give it a little more oomph.

Finally, our two favorite wines from Heritage Vineyards were the 2006 Estate Syrah priced at $18.00 and the 2006 limited production Chambourcin which was priced at $22.50 a bottle.  Both of these wines were big, ripe, and peppery.  The long and skinny on both of these wines would be like Forrest Gump saying, “I like these two wines a lot”.  Trust me, they’re both outstanding wines that are certainly worth contacting Heritage Vineyards to get some.

I would also like to give a shout out to a new (for me) dry white wine called Traminette that I discovered at the festival.  Traminette is a hybrid cross of Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc.  My wife and I enjoyed trying several of them.

Last but not least, if sweet is your thing then you would have been in sweet tooth heaven.  No Jersey wine fest would be complete without a spectrum of sweet wines. There were plenty of Jersey wineries serving up some very tasty dessert wines and a few that brought me back to my early Boone’s years.

Special thanks to the Garden State Wine Growers Association for putting together such a terrific festival.  We look forward to attending next year!  To see all of the pictures that were taken at the festival, visit the WineLife365 Fan Page.

If you’re interested in learning more about New Jersey made wines visit The Garden State Wine Grower’s Association website.

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This year’s festival will feature over 200 different New Jersey produced wines as well as great live jazz entertainment that will include Jazz in Pastel and the Gambone Project.  Guests will also have the opportunity to explore the grounds of Allaire State Park which was once home in the early 19th Century to an industrial iron producing community.

Among the New Jersey wineries participating in this year’s event will be the 2009 winners of the New Jersey Wine Competition including Winery of the Year Award winner, Alba Vineyard, Tomasello Winery, which won the Governor’s Cup and the award for Best Dessert Wine, Heritage Vineyards, which took the Governor’s Cup for Grape Wine with its 2005 Chambourcin and Plagido’s Winery, which garnered the award for Best American Wine with its Antonio Rosso Fredonia, along with many other outstanding New Jersey wineries.

This weekend’s live entertainment will showcase, The Gambone Project featuring Vel Johnson on saxophone, performing on Saturday from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. This quartet offers a full range of jazz, including traditional and smooth jazz and rhythm and blues.  In addition to Vel Johnson, the group features Gregg Gambone on piano, Jonathan Sims on drums and Kevin Sanders on vibes.

On Sunday, Sept. 6^th from 12:30 to 4:30 p.m. the jazz quartet Jazz in Pastel, led by Buzz Saylor, a premier jazz drummer who has worked with such legendary jazz musicians as Wynton Marsalis, Tony Levin, Steve Rodby and John Helliwell to name a few will be taking the stage and showcasing their classic jazz improvisation style that crosses over both jazz and rock.

This is a family-friendly event as there will be activities for the kids, including arts & crafts, face painting, and games.  In addition to this, the onsite Howell Works Company Store Museum and Gift Shop and the Howell Works Bakery will also be open.

If you are interested in finding out more about the festival, you can either call The Garden State Wine Growers Association at 609-588-0085 or go the association website at www.newjerseywines.com. Tickets for the festival are $20 a person at the gate.  Advance tickets can be purchased only at the association web site for $18 per person.  A discount price of $16 per person is available for bus groups and group sales of 15 or more.

Additional information can be found on The Historic Village at Allaire website.

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