The Work Behind the Wines!

The real reason we love making wines (other than just drinking them).

You hear us talk a ton about supporting local farms, farmers, and getting fruit from New Jersey. We are the "Garden State" after all!

Jackie and Jeremy with a box of our berries!

A few days ago we picked up about 3,000 pounds of Cranberries, from Jeff over at Whalen Farms in Shamong. They've been in business for over 40 years, and have over 500 acres of cranberries and blueberries. They even grow for Ocean Spray!!!

Jeff and Jeremy

We're immensely proud to be able to support local NJ farmers and growers.

New Jersey is actually the 3rd largest producer of cranberries in America, and at one point we were even number one! This round of Cranberries will be used in a batch of our JerseyBerry, which is a blend of Jersey grown Chardonnay and cranberries. It is lightly sweet and the perfect pair with poultry dishes or pork chops.

Jeremy and Dominic working to make sure all the fruits are smashed up

Our JerseyBerry label

Agriculture remains to be the backbone of our society- if you like wine remember no farms- no wine! If you wanted to personally support Whalen farms, they do sell pints and quarts of their berries. Check them out here! Also a big thank you to our neighbor, Ramblin' Sol farm for letting us borrow their truck for our endeavors!

bringing the truck back to Ramblin' sol!

After a couple days it was time to get to work on these cranberries! In order to extract the juice out of any berry you need to crush and press the juice out of them. This is a labor of love and luckily, we had lots of help! Pictured right above is a personal friend of the winery, a renowned winemaker, restaurateur, and entrepreneur, Dominic Rivard. Hailing all the way from Nova Scotia, Canada- He came out to help us make sure our cranberry is of top-notch quality, and give us pointers along the way!

Jerry (left) and Jackie (right) fighting the weather and getting the job done!

Like we said before, wine making is a labor of love and EVERYONE pitches in. Pictured to the right is Jerry and Jackie working outside in wind gusts of 40+ mph, IN THE RAIN! They're cleaning out our manual press, loading each wheelbarrow, and walking those all the way out to our compost pile in the way back of our vineyard. Not an easy task indeed!

Enjoying the "Jerry's special" pie from Palermo's! Sausage, Pepperoncinis, and garlic!

At the end of the day, we love what we do. Spending time with friends, working hard, getting dirty, and making great wines that we can share with friends and family over a piping hot, and well done New Jersey tomato pie! We hope to see you soon at the winery! 🍷