Something Good on the Jersey Shore?

I recently took a trip up north and spent a week in New York and New Jersey.  There are thousands of uniquely tantalizing restaurants in New York City and I am certainly not the first person to have noticed.  So instead of becoming the latest in a long line of people waxing poetic about soup dumplings, I am going to focus on one of the surprising gems I found in New Jersey.

As much as reality television would have you believe that there is nothing of substance left on the Jersey shore, I did manage to find a charming pocket of shoreline where great food and wine still reign supreme.  Located on the southernmost tip of New Jersey, Cape May is a tiny summer resort town where B&Bs are the main industry.

Cape May, New Jersey

Facing a rainy day in a town where the beach is the center of everything, we decided to kill time by visiting the local winery, appropriately named the Cape May Winery.

But before going on, I would like to add my obligatory rant about wine tours in general.  For the most part, I detest taking tours of small, unknown wineries.  My philosophy is that if they were any good, you would have heard of them before.  You never know going in if you’re going to wind up in some family owned, hand picked artisan vineyard or some bored stockbroker’s new hobby.  And once you’re inside and have paid for the damn tour, you have no choice but to try one bottle of watery vinegar after another.  I’m not a wine snob, but some of the stuff I’ve tried at small wineries isn’t wine.

With all of this in the back of my mind, I approached the Cape May Winery with some hesitation.  But, in the end, it was a choice between that or watching reruns of America’s Next Top Model back at the hotel so, to the winery we went.

Cape May Winery

Inside we were introduced to our tour guide, Barbara, and guided to the back porch where we could gaze out at the vineyard from under the protective cover of the overhang.  Barbara told us all about the background of the vineyard. I began to feel my trepidation creeping back up on me when I heard that the winery was owned by a local businessman who had purchased it as a retirement project.  But my fears were soon allayed when we were given our first sample.

From the Back Porch

We began with a glass of their Pinot Grigio, which was quite good.  But what really won me over was the next glass, their Chardonnay.   I was surprised to find myself liking it since I am not much of a white wine girl in general and especially dislike Chardonnay for it’s overly sweet and fruity syrup tendencies.  This was the complete opposite.  It was light and dry with very subtle hints of citrus.  After my second glass, I knew it was going to be a good tour…and it was.

Now, maybe all tours won’t be as enjoyable as the one we went on.  Maybe we received special treatment since the rain had cut off the half of the tour where they show you the vineyards and the bottling.  But, if that is the case, I highly recommend heading out there on the next cloudy day because what we did instead was a complete delight.  We were taken downstairs to the wine cellar where a plate of fruits and cheeses was laid out and we proceeded to try another nine bottles of wine.

Wine Cellar

I won’t lie and say that all of the wines were phenomenal; some were just average.  The port, for example, was just so so.  But, in my opinion, I did not try a single wine that was below average and I drank several that were far above.

The ones that won me over most of all were the varietals that I normally don’t care for, but were good enough in their own right to break through my skepticism.  Their Merlot went a long way to help me work past my Sideways-induced prejudices.  It was strong, full-bodied and better than most Merlots I have tried, at least in the same price range.

So what about my standard logic?  If this place is so good why haven’t we heard of it?  Well it has nothing to do with the quality of the wine and everything to do with the liquor laws in New Jersey.  They are not allowed to ship their wine out of state so they cannot arrange for any national or even regional distribution.  The majority of their business comes from patrons at the winery and local restaurants.  So, unfortunately, I can’t recommend that you go out to your local wine shop and pick up a bottle from the Cape May Winery.  But if you’re ever in south New Jersey, especially if it happens to be raining, give it a try.

Cape May Winery: www.capemaywinery.com