For NJ Vineyards, Summer Drought Meant Better Wines

NEW JERSEY — The harvest season after a summer where drought conditions took hold may have been difficult for some farmers, but for New Jersey's wine growers, it has been a boon.

Wine growers are anticipating not a harvest that will produce some of the best wines New Jersey has bottled in more than 10 years.

"This year in New Jersey was more like where I'm sitting right now," Gary Pavlis, a Rutgers University professor and expert on New Jersey's grape and blueberry industries, said by phone from the Tuscany region of Italy, where he is leading a wine tour.

"Once these wines get in the bottle it’s time to stock up," Pavlis said, adding this year's vintage is anticipated to be the best since 2010, when the state experienced a similarly dry, hot summer. "If you haven’t started that wine cellar, 2022 might be the time."

Bruce Morrison, the owner of Jessie Creek Winery in Cape May Courthouse, said it's the best season he's experienced since he ventured into winemaking in the mid-2000s. Morrison was drawn to winemaking after a trip to the Napa Valley in California, and grows five varieties of grapes, including pinot grigio, chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon, merlot and chambourcin.

Pavlis said the drought conditions don't negatively affect the grapes the way they harm other crops, like corn or lettuce, because of a difference in the root structure of the crops.

"With most crops, like corn, lettuce, strawberries, the roots are in the top 12 inches of the soil," Pavlis said.

Grapevines have roots that have been known to go 30 feet deep. "They seek out water," he said. Most vineyards aren't irrigated for that reason, he said.

"Grapes like the struggle," Morrison said. "They like the challenge."

The dry weather also reduces the incidence of disease, Pavlis said, which can spread more easily when the vineyards stay wet for extended periods.

While the spotted lanternfly has been a concern throughout the state, Pavlis said so far the pesky insect has not caused significant damage.

"It’s a problem but we don't see it as a doom and gloom thing," he said. "You have to be on top of it from a control aspect."

Morrison said he has not seen any of the destructive spotted lanternflies in his vineyard yet, but did have to deal with beetles and the grape berry moth, which specifically targets the grapes. Those are a bigger issue, he said.

Billy Postma of Little Ridge Vineyards in Phillipsburg said the spotted lanternflies have been a bigger problem in the northwest part of the state.

"This year is worse than last year," Postma said, though this year he has been better equipped to deal with them than last year, when "we actually lost plants to them."

"We didn’t know what to spray, how much to spray, and they just kept coming," he said. This year, the lanternflies are primary on the plants closest to the woods. "They get on the plants and work their way down. I think we have a pretty good handle on them."

The dry weather that reduces diseases also produces better grapes, because less water means the flavor is more concentrated, Pavlis said. The yield is lower because the grapes are smaller, but the grapes themselves are better.

"The grapes have a higher brix," Morrison said, which is the sugar content of the grape.

The process of getting it from the vineyard into your glass, however, takes time, patience and a lot of work.

For white wines, Morrison said the grapes being harvested right now will be bottled and ready in about four to six months, because those wines don't undergo an aging process.

Red wines take a minimum of 18 months, and often up to two years before they are fully aged for bottling, he said, and the process includes changing the barrels, removing sediment and monitoring the sulfites to ensure the wine doesn't oxidize.

Morrison said an acre of grapes will produce about 160 gallons of wine, with each gallon yielding five bottles.

In New Jersey there are more than 50 wineries, with locations up and down the state and range of sizes, from what Morrison described as boutique wineries like his, which has 5 acres of vineyards, to much larger wineries such as Tomasello Winery, with its 70 acres of vineyards and multiple wine-tasting locations.

The Garden State Wine Growers Association said New Jersey has had wine growers dating back to the late 1750s, when two New Jersey men, William Alexander and Edward Antill, took on the challenge to colonists from Great Britain's Royal Society to produce a wine that was of the quality the British were buying from France.

The oldest winery is the Renault Winery in Egg Harbor Township, which has been operating since 1864 and became the largest distributor of champagne in the United States.

The wine industry has grown substantially in New Jersey since 2000, and the state now has four designated American Viticultural (wine-growing) Areas: Cape May Peninsula, Warren Hills AVA, Central Delaware Valley AVA, and the Outer Coastal Plain AVA.

The taste of each region's wines is influenced by the growing environment of the grapes.

The 2010 vintage wines led to what the wine growers association calls the state industry's "watershed moment ... when a blind taste test between 10 NJ wines and French wines —5 from Burgundy and 5 from Bordeaux — resulted in essentially a tie." The taste test in June 2012 showed no significant difference in taste "between the New Jersey red blend and a first-growth Bordeaux, or between a New Jersey Chardonnay and a premier cru Burgundy."

Pavlis said the 2022 season promises more of the same.

"We're looking for fabulous wines from north to south," he said.

With the growing popularity of wine tastings and tours, the wine growers association has created "wine trails" to help promote the various wineries and highlight what they offer. For some, it's concerts and special events to draw people for an evening of wine, food and fun. For others, the draw is a place to sit with friends, relax and enjoy a day or an evening out, tasting wine around a firepit.

Morrison said the growth of the industry has increased the emphasis on looking beyond the glass in front of you.

"It's like going to a baseball game or a football game with friends," Morrison said. "You go to tailgate, hang out, have fun. It's the whole experience."

The wine trails, which in some cases include local breweries and distilleries, and the wine growers' Passport Program aim to help draw attention to the lesser known wineries and promote the depth of the industry in the state for those who enjoy sampling offerings.