Wine-tasting festival draws 6,000 to Valley vineyard
By Dan Petty (Pennington Post)

What had been a barren farm field just days before on Neri's property - Hopewell Valley Vineyards - was overnight transformed into a jubilant atmosphere with live music, trinket shops and large tents, under which 18 of New Jersey's wineries offered more than 200 wines for people to sample.The festival, organized by the Garden State Wine Grower's Association, a group of the 30 New Jersey wineries, was visiting Hopewell Valley Vineyards for the second time. Other festivals will take place throughout New Jersey for the remainder of the summer.

Classes and lectures were offered on topics ranging from wine-tasting etiquette to whether New Jersey wine can rival the wine produced in California's Napa Valley.

Kathy Bullock, the festival director, said the goal of this festival was to increase awareness of New Jersey wines. The association added a fifth festival this year in Cape May, N.J., allowing the wineries to gain exposure to people across the state.

"What we're seeing is more people buying from multiple wineries," Bullock said. "We used to see people come along and find a favorite winery and just exclusively buy from that winery. Now because of the growing number of wineries in the state, the quality [of the wine] is increasing dramatically. And in doing that, we're finding that the people who bought one or two cases from one winery are now buying one or two bottles from multiple wineries."

According to Kardoner, there were 12 wineries in New Jersey in 2001. Three years later, when he applied for his winery applied for a license, he was the 22nd, just after Hopewell Valley, which was the 21st. New Jersey now has 28 wineries, according to the Wine Growers' Web site. Kardoner expects the state to have 50 wineries in two more years, adding that wineries are currently the fastest growing agricultural group in New Jersey.

A law repealed in 1982 that limited the number of wineries in New Jersey to one for every million residents hindered the wine industry's growth in the state after the government repealed prohibition in 1933.

"Because there were so few wineries, I think people were under the impression that it couldn't be done," Kardoner said. "I think people were under the impression that it couldn't be done."

Attendance at these festivals has increased dramatically in just the last five years, coinciding with the jump in new wineries being founded in New Jersey.

"When we first started in East Windsor in a farmer's market, we would probably be lucky to have 500 people there on a weekend," said Mark Kardoner, chairman for the festival committee and a winemaker in Robbinsville, N.J., at Silver Decoy Winery, which was named New Jersey's winery of the year for 2007.

Obviously something has caught on. Last year, about 5,200 people came to Hopewell Valley Vineyards for the festival. This year, organizers were expecting more than 6,000 people to come.

Lindsay Korwin, 22, a Pennington native and student at the College of New Jersey, attended the festival Sunday with two other friends from school.

"I've been meaning to try the winery," she said, referring to Hopewell Valley Vineyards. "It's a bigger deal than I expected. We're just getting tips from the wine pourers like, 'try dry first and then sweet.'"

"New Jersey is clearly better with their white wines than their red wines," said Gary Naylor, 57, of Union Beach, N.J.

"If you go to something like this, you can really get a sense of the difference between each one of the wineries."

George Taber Visits Hopewell Valley Vineyards

George M. Taber is the author of Judgment of Paris: California vs. France and the 1976 Paris Tasting that Revolutionized Wine, a book published by Scribner in 2005 that is the inside story of the dramatic tasting session that transformed the wine industry when California beat France for the first time in a blind tasting. George, then a young reporter for Time magazine, was the only reporter at the tasting, and he revisits the event in his book with great depth, clarity and character development.

Autographed copies of Judgement of Paris are available at Hopewell Valley Vineyards. To read more about Judgment of Paris and its author, visit judgmentofparisbook.com.

Life is as rich as the glass of wine on your holiday table — which may very well be from the Garden State.

Although the grapes have been harvested and pressed and the vines are going dormant, the time is still ripe to visit New Jersey's wineries. After all, the Thanksgiving holiday is all about celebrating the good things in life. And, as families and friends gather together, many memories are made around the table as wine and conversation flow smoothly into the evening.

The festivities needn't end on Thanksgiving Day, though, and for the third year in a row families and friends can take to the trails — the Holiday Wine Trails — to carry on with their heart-healthy indulgences. The Hunterdon Wine Trail vineyards — Hopewell Valley Vineyards in Pennington, and Unionville Vineyards and Amwell Valley Vineyards in Ringoes — are among the wineries opening their doors Nov. 25 through 27 to those interested in learning about New Jersey wineries and sampling the fruits of their labors.

"It's a great time to visit a vineyard and do your holiday shopping, to enjoy the vineyard experience and the wines of New Jersey," says Tom Sharko, president of the Garden State Wine Growers Association and owner of Alba Vineyards in Warren. The idea for the Holiday Wine Trail weekend came from a similar event in the Finger Lakes region of N.Y., and in the past three years attendance has blossomed.

Trailblazers are welcome to travel from vineyard to vineyard, sampling wines at their leisure. From sweet whites to dry reds, with dessert wines and champagne as well, New Jersey vineyards have it all, though they are often underappreciated.

"New Jersey now is the fifth-highest (by volume) wine producing state in the nation," says Dan McKee Jr., sales and marketing manager for Unionville Vineyards. "But only one percent of the wine that New Jerseyans consume is New Jersey wine."

The reason for this, speculates Mr. McKee, is that people aren't aware of the great strides the New Jersey wineries have made in the past five years.

"If they haven't tasted it, they don't know what they're missing," he says. But they will know what they are missing after they taste the 2003 Hunters Red Reserve, which Unionville Vineyards will release on the holiday weekend. With its sweet notes of raspberries, candy cherries and cassis, Mr. McKee is confident it will be a winner. After all, the 2002 Hunters Red Reserve was a double gold winner in the International Eastern Wine Competition.

In addition, visitors can sample Unionville's 20 other varieties in the renovated 1858 dairy barn that is home to the vineyard's tasting room. Branching out from grapevines, the vineyard promises a truly Mediterranean weekend experience.

Wine and olive oil simply go together. And so, to accompany the wines, there will be an olive oil event by "Taste of Crete," with many varieties of imported hand-crafted olive oil available for the tasting. In addition to dipping breads in the oils, visitors will have the chance to convince themselves that olive oil can indeed be used for baking — there will be olive oil cookies fresh-baked for the occasion. For those craving a sweet complement to their wine, professional chocolatier J. Emanuel will be offering decadent chocolate truffles, infused with some of Unionville's wines.

Then, to satisfy that sweet tooth even further, people can head to Amwell Valley Vineyard for a glass of port. Made from Marechal Foch grapes, the wine was ranked by USA Today as the Most Notable Wine in New Jersey in June 2002. The sweet dessert wine can count among its devotees Jeff Fisher, president of Amwell Valley Vineyards.

The former pharmaceutical biochemist started the vineyard in 1978 with his late father, and now runs the operation with his wife, the CEO. More than 5,000 grapevines flourish in the shale and loam soil, and Mr. Fisher credits the soil with the delicious earthy flavors of their wine.

"It gets busier every year," he says of the Holiday Wine Trail Weekend. "I think more people realize there's a lot of wineries in New Jersey and they're making very good wine."

He points to Napa Valley in California as an inspiration, and says that New Jersey's vineyards, far from being competitors, are actually helping each other grow.

Sergio Neri, the owner of Hopewell Valley Vineyards, would certainly agree. A native of vineyard-soaked Tuscany, he relishes the chance to collaborate with other local wineries. He still co-owns a vineyard in Tuscany with his brother, and has the knowledge of making wines, and enjoying them, that can only come from generations of experience.

With his Italian culture and heritage, it's no surprise to him that the wine industry in New Jersey and the United States is taking off.

"I think wine is a very mystical, very particular sensorial experience," he says as he savors a sip of his favorite red as if to prove his point. "It's kind of like having gourmet food. It's interesting for our minds and our bodies, and also there's a social aspect. It's a science and an art at the same time."

People can investigate the science and the art as they sample the 11 varieties of wine at Hopewell Valley Vineyards, including the recently released Barbera. The New Jersey Wine Competition gold medal winner is actually the second most-produced wine in Italy, after Chianti, and Mr. Neri has high hopes for its success here.

With his deep Italian accent and hearty laugh, his strong family connections and his love of the good life and a good wine, Mr. Neri is sure to inspire travelers on the wine trail to slow down, take a deep breath of wine-tinged air, and give thanks — for the vineyards, the pleasures and the memories.

The Holiday Wine Trail Weekend will take place Nov. 25-27, noon to 5 p.m., at Amwell Valley Vineyards, 80 Old York Road, Ringoes, (908) 788-5852; Hopewell Valley Vineyards, 46 Yard Road, Pennington, (609) 737-4465; and Unionville Vineyards, 9 Rocktown Road, Ringoes, (908) 788-0400, and at more than 15 other New Jersey wineries. Garden State Wine Growers Association on the Web: www.newjerseywines.com