WineLife365

Earlier this year, I shared with you my first experience with New Jersey produced wines.  At that point in time, I was rather ashamed to admit, being in a neighboring state to New Jersey, that I actually had no clue that so many wineries even existed in New Jersey.  But since then, I’ve had an opportunity to taste many of the wines produced by the state’s 33 wineries that boasts the sixth largest wine production numbers in the United States, according to a 2008 Wine Industry Report .  What’s even more impressive about these production numbers is the rather large number of different types of wine that is being produced in the Garden State.  Because of its climate and geological diversity, there are more than 40 different varieties of grapes being grown here – ranging from Pinot Noir and Riesling in North Jersey and Italian varieties, such as Sangiovese and Barbera, in Southern Jersey.

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!