You may not have heard much about New Jersey wine, but word is getting out around the world that the Garden State has some great grapes.
A look at Stokelan Estate Winery in Medford
Stokelan Estate Winery owner Deepa Lal speaks about opening her Medford establishment in July.
Adam Monacelli/USA TODAY NETWORK NJ GROUP, Cherry Hill Courier-Post
There are over 60 wineries in New Jersey.New Jersey wines have been recognized by several International panels for its quality.Several wine festivals this fall give guests a chance to taste the range of what we NJ wineries have to offer.
A panel of world-class wine experts flew in to taste New Jersey wine at the Terroir New Jersey Wine Showcase in 2025. The experts were told to evaluate the wine honestly — that is, don’t give us the old, “It’s good… for New Jersey.” They had to play it straight and tell us what we’ve got growing here and how our wines compare to the best in the world.
“The feedback I received from the international panel of judges was they are all now ambassadors of New Jersey wine,” said Ed Wengryn, secretary of the New Jersey Department of Agriculture, which sponsored the event.
In total, 68 of the 138 New Jersey wines entered were deemed “showcase” quality, or world-class. They spanned several varieties including riesling, chardonnay, cabernet Franc, fruit wine and more and came from wineries throughout the state.
It’s another notch in the belt for New Jersey wine, one of the fastest growing agricultural sectors in the state. Critically, the wine is good and getting better. Wine Enthusiast recently named New Jersey as one of the world’s seven most promising wine-growing regions along with spots in Europe and South America.
Devon Perry, of the Garden State Wine Growers Association, said the quality of New Jersey wine is better than what many folks — even those of us in New Jersey — might expect. All you have to do to find out is take a sip, which you can do at one of several upcoming Jersey-centric wine festivals.
“This is the epiphany moment,” she said. “’Epiphany wine’ is the term we use to refer to the wine that changes your mind about a place or a grape or a winery or a winemaker. And my hope is that the future is bright in New Jersey because people are simply taking a sip of our wine and it speaks for itself.”
The growth of New Jersey wine
There are over 60 wineries and vineyards in New Jersey, Perry said, which grow more than 80 varieties of grapes. There are four designated growing areas, or American Viticultural Areas (AVA), in the state: Cape May Peninsula, Central Delaware Valley AVA, Outer Coastal Plain and Warren Hills.
The soils and climates of each — from the sandy, oceanic shore areas to the rocky, higher altitude spots in northwest Jersey — create distinct difference in wine flavor, Perry said.
“You can take a glass of sauvignon blanc from all four AVAs and you absolutely will taste the difference,” she said.
With the exception of Tomasello Winery in Hammonton, which has been producing wine since 1933, many wineries have sprung up in the Garden State in the last four decades or so — a state bill signed in the ’80s relaxed Prohibition-era laws that severely limited the number of wineries allowed in the state. Perry adds that it’s only been in the last 10-15 years that the total acreage to wine grape-growing has seen “explosive growth.”
Because of the relatively late start for the wine industry here, New Jersey wineries have to make a name for themselves in a market now heavily saturated with wine from more heralded growing regions. But the proof of its quality is in the juice, Perry said.
“It is always a surprise that folks from Italy value our grapes sometimes more value than they value their own,” Perry said, adding that the day is not too far off when vintners from other states start sourcing Jersey-grown grapes. “It’s a beautiful fact, and we need to tell our neighbors they can go to restaurants and ask for New Jersey wine and it shouldn’t be a surprise that we’re so amazing. But if it is and that helps us feel like the David to the Goliath of California, I can lean into that.”
‘Going through a journey’ showing diners local wines
Regan DeBenedetto is the sommelier at Spuntino Wine Bar & Italian Tapas in Clifton. While many of the wines (and there are many) she curates and chooses to serve at wine dinners and events are from those more heralded regions in the U.S., South American and Europe, she said she’s now looking at bringing in New Jersey wines to find a place for them in Spuntino’s wine program.
“I think that we do have a responsibility to our guests and to our communities to be providing these local wines,” she said. “I think we’re going to go on a journey with our guests throughout this year and throughout 2026, trying them out together and making some great pairings.”
While browsing New Jersey wines, you’ll certainly come across familiar names in white varieties like riesling, chardonnay and pinot gris and red wines like cabernet Franc, merlot and grenache, but some savvy winemakers are finding grapes well-suited to their soil and that stand out on a market shelf, like Beneduce Vineyard’s fantastic Blaufränkisch, a bold, tannic, spicy red. Bellview Winery’s chambourcin was selected at the Terroir Showcase as a premier wine, as was White Horse’s traminette — both French hybrid grape varieties that grow well here.
Room for creativity in the NJ wine landscape
But if there’s the disadvantage of having to convince folks Jersey wine is actually good, there’s also the advantage of being able to try things that higher-profile vineyards might not bother to attempt.
“We can’t take our selves too seriously,” DeBenedetto said. “I think in New Jersey, although there’s Bordeaux styles and plenty of cab Franc and chardonnay, there are also fun things like fruit wine to experiment with. There are fun and approachable sparkling wines. I think as long as you’re pairing the wine properly with your event or experience and the food, I think there’s a place at the table for most of these wines.”
Give local New Jersey wine a chance
When the folks at Stony Hill Farm in Chester got sick of throwing out excess or damaged fruit, they turned to wine, launching Rebel Sheep Wine Co. in 2024. Winemaker Dana Ronyack Davis said she started turning apples and berries into wine on a jury-rigged kitchen setup, took some Penn State extension fruit wine-making courses and, now, the fruits of her labor are being enjoyed by a growing number of patrons.
“Most people want to give it a chance,” she said. “Most people are exciting for something different than what they’re used to. I tell them this is what grows well in New Jersey and this is what you can make a great wine out of.”
If you hear “fruit wine” and think, “Ick, too sweet,” try Rebel Sheep’s. Their apple cranberry wine is dry but flavor-forward, a finished profile Davis said she tries to accomplish in all her wines.
“I think a lot of people think fruit wine is sweet, and I’m trying to debunk that myth,” she said. “We make a lot of our stuff very dry.”
And Rebel Sheep will also dry-hop some of their fruit wines for just a touch of herbaceousness; their Hopposites Attract strawberry-based cider also took top marks at the Terroir Showcase.
New Jersey wine has potential
Last summer’s drought led to optimal growing conditions for wine grapes, Perry said, calling it a “silver lining” that transformed our climate to one more akin to Bordeaux, France. As such, heading out to wineries now to taste the 2024 vintage should show enough promise for even the most ardent Jersey wine skeptics that we have potential here (and Perry said she’s hearing from producers that the 2025 harvest is excellent). After all, we’re still in the infancy of what New Jersey wine can become.
“Every year is different, the weather is different, the winemakers are learning,” DeBenedetto said. “I would think if you go to the most prestigious wine-making regions in the world, I’m sure in the early days of experimenting they also struggled. You’ve got to give it time.”
“If the story of New Jersey wine continues to be written as beautifully as we’ve been living it,” Perry added, “and if as New Jersey-born folks all over the world are speaking positively and proudly about New Jersey wine, I can’t tell you where the ceiling is for us.”
How to taste New Jersey wine
Now is an ideal time of year to taste New Jersey wine, if for no other reason than you get to take a fun day trip that’ll cost a lot less than a trip to Napa, and still result in good wine and some spectacular views. My favorite setting is Alba Vineyard in Milford, with rolling rows of vines set against the backdrop of a 360-degree view of tree-lined mountains.
In North Jersey, you can head to Ventimiglia Vineyard in Wantage, Brook Hollow Winery in Columbia and Four Sister Winery in Belvidere. Head south from there and you’ll run into a handful more wineries in Hunterdon County.
Or, if you’d rather taste wine all in one place, there are a couple festivals upcoming to do so. WineFest NJ hits Valenzano Winery in Shamong Sept. 20-21, and the Grand Harvest Wine Festival comes to Fosterfields Living Historical Farm in Morristown from Oct. 4-5.
And the second annual NJ Wine Expo, the Garden State Wine Growers Association’s keystone event, will happen on Nov. 15, 2025 at Bell Works in Holmdel.
Matt Cortina is a food reporter for NorthJersey.com/The Record. Reach him at mcortina@gannett.com.
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