Italy Wants New Jersey Wine, Seriously?

This past summer, Jules and I joined Italian sommelier Sally Semeria in Rome for the U.S. Embassy’s Fourth of July celebration. Our mission: to introduce the U.S. Ambassador and his guests to Garden State wine. And it was a great party. Wow, what a party. But for Garden State wine, it was way more than that…

When Sally first reached out to us in early 2022 about promoting Garden State wine overseas—and in Italy, of all places—we all thought she was bananas. It’s not that we don’t believe in ourselves. But let’s face it, the idea of selling serious, dry, premium wine from New Jersey to one of the great wine-producing regions of the world—all while we are struggling every day to make our name known here and silence that laugh track that always seems to follow us around—seemed, well…

Yet, while responding to Sally’s interest seemed crazy, being winemakers, it was far from the craziest thing we had each ever done. So I responded. And over countless Zoom calls, emails, and even a quick trip to visit Sally in Milan, it slowly started to dawn on me that maybe we had stumbled onto something.

began to think that maybe the best way for us to build much needed (and maddeningly elusive) credibility at home would be to gain some level of credibility abroad. In fact, maybe just giving it a bold and fearless shot could raise a few eyebrows of interest, if for no other reason than just our being ballsy enough to send our plucky, happy little wines on a brave and intrepid adventure overseas. And why not Italy? Maybe the more impregnable the fortress— the more unlikely the target—the more seriously we might be taken in the attempt. This idea, and what was potentially to be gained from it, suddenly did not seem quite so crazy after all…

So a year and a half later, there we were in Rome showing off wines from four wonderful Garden State wineries: Hawk Haven, Bellview, Cedar Rose, and Auburn Road. We met, talked, and tasted wine all night long with international sommeliers and journalists, Italian bloggers and influencers, the U.S. Agricultural Attaché, and even the Ambassador himself. Everybody was impressed. Everyone took us seriously.

Garden State wines were in Italy-and no one was laughing.

To hear more about Garden State wines’ on-going adventures in Italy and other stories about a “life in wine” in our little corner of New Jersey, visit Auburn Road’s “Wine Stories” at www.auburnroadvineyards.com/wine-stories.

Auburn Road Vineyard & Winery
117 Sharptown-Auburn Rd., Pilesgrove, NJ 
auburnroadvineyards.com