We are not Big Wine. We are not mass-produced wine. We are not necessarily world-renowned wine (yet…). But we are the vineyards of New Jersey’s Outer Coastal Plain and this is who we are and why we matter:
THE LOCAVORE & SLOW FOOD MOVEMENT
Increasingly, people care where their food comes from, and that is doubly true of wine. They want to ask about the farming practices and how sustainable they are. They want to understand how the wine is made and what, if anything, is added and why. And they want to meet the people who make it—to be able to ask them questions and see behind the process.
TERROIR
Among wine’s many delightful gifts is its ability to convey a sense of place. When you visit one of us, you are not tasting a Cabernet Franc from a mighty river of generic Cab Franc or a Chardonnay from the vast ocean of all the Chard in the world. You are tasting what Cabernet Franc and Chardonnay taste like when grown in this mid-Atlantic climate and on our specific little patches of earth here in the Outer Coastal Plain. And then you can scoop a handful of the soil that grew those grapes and let it run through your fingers while you look up and feel the sun on your face.
“Among wine’s many delightful gifts is its ability to convey a sense of place.”
AGRI-TOURISM
There is something life-affirming about spending time away from your busy life—out in a vineyard with a glass of wine in your hand. People travel thousands of miles for a taste of that experience. And what a wonderful thing it is to be able to have that experience close to home. It certainly requires much less of a commitment of time, travel, and, especially, money. But it is more than that: When a pleasure can be found close to home, you can enjoy it as frequently as you like—as a place to savor the spectacular Northeast seasons; to celebrate the big events of life; or maybe as a place to just escape to for a few hours when you need to recharge.
THE SOUL OF A WINE
Wine is a living, breathing thing. It reacts to its surroundings— it absorbs everything. And I believe that includes the energy of the people around it who farm the grapes and make the wine. I think it even interacts with the guests who come to the vineyard to enjoy it—reflecting the people who they are enjoying it with, the way they may be feeling that day, or the place they are in their lives. It captures a moment in time. In that way, no bottle of wine is ever truly the same.
MESSAGE IN A BOTTLE
And when the wine leaves the vineyard and travels anywhere in the world, it carries a little bit of its place—and of the stories and the spirit of the winemakers who made it—along with it. It’s not just wine. It is connection. And the world definitely needs more of that…
