Audrey Cross, PhD, Owner/Winemaker - Villa Milagro Vineyards

Audrey Cross grew up on her family’s almond, peach, and grape farm in California—her father was a commodity farmer and her mother was a nurse. Cross combined the two by earning a doctoral degree in nutrition and public policy, along with a law degree, eventually rising to work for the administration of President Jimmy Carter. She wrote the nation’s first dietary guidelines in 1983, and later became a successful television personality, but says that “at some point I started thinking about returning to the farm.”

Cross moved east in 1978, and in 1999 started traveling with husband Steve Gambino around New Jersey, looking for a spot to grow heritage or heirloom vegetables. To the couple’s surprise, the state had wineries—a natural fit for Cross, who, as a Californian, loved wine and grew up with it as part of the family table. In 2001, the two bought a 100+ acre cornfield. When they began planting vines in 2003 and opened Villa Milagro the following year, Cross became just the second woman in New Jersey to become a winemaker and own a commercial vineyard, preceded by Mimi LaFollette-Summerskill of LaFollette Winery in Belle Meade (who passed away in 2008).

The winemaker had already broadened her horizons beyond California wines and fallen in love with European vineyards and varietals on her move east. Villa Milagro, which means “place of miracles” in Spanish, is now “small by design,” says Cross, who makes wine in the European style, hand-picking and harvesting the grapes. The duo converted the soil to organic in 2001 and make “tremendous efforts” to control runoff and soil erosion that might affect the nearby Musconetcong River. The health of the land, of course, is a natural concern for a nutritionist.

Villa Milagro Vineyards
33 County Rd. 627, Phillipsburg
villamilagrovineyards.com