Cape May Winery & Vineyards

Our last stop in our daytrip to Cape May, NJ was Cape May Winery & Vineyards - it also was the main reason we headed into Cape May for the day.

I had bought a deal on Philly Dealyo for 2 for 1 tour and tasting tickets - and I couldn't have redeemed it on a better day.   Adam and I have done probably about a half dozen winery tours or so - and Ive done another couple without Adam - and for the most part - they start to get redundant.

This one though had a few things that none of the others ever had on my previous tours:

• We came on a day that they were bottling their port, so we didn't just get to see the bottling area - we actually got to see the process in work - which was really cool.    
• We got to pick a grape off the vine and use a cool (expensive) tool that could show you the sugar content of the grape.    
• We got to taste a brand new wine that hasn't even been bottled yet
• We got to taste wine straight from the barrel

To start with, we got there super early, so they told us that they had a deck that we could hang out on, as that would be the only place the tour wouldn't take us, so Adam went upstairs to the deck - and that would be an awesome place to just hang out with friends, a bottle of wine and some food.   They have an indoor and outdoor area that are well furnished and decorated.   When outside, you have a beautiful view of the vineyards.

 

After hanging out for a bit on the deck, we went back downstairs and met the tour guide where we were directed.   At that time, she took us outside right in front of the vines and had us taste our first wine.   It was their Barrel Fermented Chardonnay - which was unfortunately out of stock   It was a really nice, dry white, slighlty fruity flavors, but not sweet and very smooth.   Adam and I were both fans of it and would have totally bought 1 or 2 bottles if they had it.

At this point on the tour we started to get a history of the vineyard and their process.   It was actually at this winery (before it was a winery) where grape growing started in the Cape May area.   The owner at the time had a farm on the land, and was approached by Rutgers (I think it was Rutgers) to see if they could test the ability to grow grapes for wine on the land.   It thrived, and the owner ended up planting many more vines and it only grew from there.   I also learned something that I had never seen/heard on any of my other tours.   This winery has a rose bush at the end of each row - the reason being that the rose bush is susceptible to all the diseases and bugs that the vines get, but will show earlier, so they check the rose bushes everyday, and if something is wrong, they will know how to handle it before it even affects the vines. 

Next stop on the tour was the bottling facility, where they were currently bottling their port.   I had seen many bottling facilities, but never when they were actually in action.   I tried to get a video, but there were some SUPER annoying North Jersey folks on the tour who stood in the middle and barely let the rest of us in - so alas, no good video. 

From there, we went in to their brand new tasting room - which is where they used to keep all the barrels (and still are keeping many of them).

Then on to our last stop - the barrel room, where they had cheese and cracker display for us, as well as some cabernet grapes that were taken off the vine for us to try (pretty good!).

In the barrel room, we got to try a couple wines that weren't bottled yet, and therefore we were tasting them directly from the barrels.   This was a new experience for me - and was pretty neat.

In here we got to taste the majority of their wines, and unfortunately I can't find my tasting sheet and can't remember all the wines - but I know that I liked the majority of their wines.   Adam's palate is different than mine - he likes more sweet, I like dry.   I prefer smoother wines, but do like a lot of dry wines that have some "boldness" to them - whereas Adam only likes them dry if they are smooth.   So with that, we only agreed on 3 wines - so thats all we walked out with.

We also learned something random on our tasting.   Many people get headaches after (even during) drinking red wine, and the reason (they think it) is because of the sulfites.    We were told that red wine actually had much less sulfites than other food and drink that we consume often - instead its because of the histamines in the wine - and that you should take an antihistamine to prevent the headache.    She actually joked/encouraged taking the antihistamine with your wine - even though we are directed not to mix OTC drugs and alcohol - LOL.

Anyways, we really enjoyed this winery for the wine, atmosphere and the educational and fun tour - so if you are in the area, I highly recommend the tour.   As I mentioned in the beginning, we bought it as a 2 for 1, but Id even recommend it at the full price of $20 per person.   You get a good tour (and if you go around the same time we did - end of August - you might also get the opportunity to see so many things you don't normally get to see on these tours), a free glass, lots of wine to taste and plenty of cheese and crackers to snack on.

Click here to see all the pictures I took during the tour.

Lucky Bones Restaurant in Cape May, NJ

On Adam and my recent day trip to Cape May, NJ we were looking for a place for lunch in between our winery visits, so we searched for a place through the Google Places app on my phone, and decided upon the one that didn't take us into "downtown" (as the wineries weren't in that location).   The closest place I saw that sounded good was Lucky Bones Backwater Grille - so we went.

When we got there, I noticed that they had a sign for a grill night at Cape May Winery & Vineyards - our next stop - and on the way out I noticed a wine barrel with Cape May Winery & Vineyards logo on the barrel end, and finally on the way to the car, there was a Cape May Winery & Vineyards truck.   I figured they had some partnership going - I later learned at the winery that they are actually owned by the same person, along with a well known, fancy restaurant in town - the Washington Inn and a cute store in town that Adam had shopped at last time we were in - Love the Cook.

Anyways, back to lunch.  We got there around 1:15/1:30 and the parking lot was packed, and when we got in, there was a little bit of a line.   Nothing major, but in the end it just ended up being a back-up in getting people seated, not a wait.

When I looked them up on google, it said that they were known for the sandwiches and brick-fired oven pizzas - so at that point I was originally thinking a sandwich, but if Adam and I could agree on a pizza, I could easily go for that.  Once I looked at the list, there were like 4 or 5 that I could easily choose from, and same for Adam.   Our thoughts crossed on 2 of them and finally settled on the Shrooms and Cheese Pizza.

After we ordered and were chatting, I noticed on the wall their soup of the day, and it sounded really delicious, so Adam and I decided to ask the waitress if we could order 2 cups of that in addition to the pizza.   It was a Jersey BLT Soup.   I really wanted the soup without the B, but I knew that wasn't possible, so I just hoped that it wasn't too crazy with the bacon.   I love tomato soup, so I hoped the tomato might be able to overpower the bacon.    Im glad I took that chance, because it was perfect for me.   There were small pieces of bacon bits (real ones) throughout the soup - and provided good texture, but the flavor wasn't overpowering.   The tomato soup portion was DELISH - we both scarfed it down.   The lettuce part was cute - provided as garnish on top.   If that were on the menu when we go down there again, I would definitely order it!

Just as we finished our soup, our pizza came out.   The size was perfect for Adam and I to share and I loved the thin crust that they had.   It turned out to be really good, but not something that I would order over and over again.   As I said, the crust was perfect for me, there were a lot of mushrooms of a few different types - unfortunately I couldn't identify which types.   It wasn't cheesy at all - just the right amount - it was just missing an extra flavor of something.   Not sure what additional flavor would have done the trick for me, but maybe a little bit of truffle oil (but that would have caused the price to jump).   Although I said I wouldn't order it over and over again, I would order it again - but there were lots of other things on the menu that Id like to try.

Oh - and the prices were very affordable - if you go to Cape May and are looking to drive around and not stay in the historic area - I would definitely recommend this for a lunch spot.

Cape May, NJ and Turdo Vineyards

While on our mini-vaca with my family in OCNJ, Adam and I took a day and went down to Cape May for a date day in our new favorite beach town (we fell in love with it on our first anniversary trip earlier this summer).

Originally we were going to go to the beach with my family in the late morning, and then go to Cape May Winery for a 3pm tour that I had bought a deal for on Philly Dealyo, but Adam's legs really bothered him the evening prior after going to the beach, so we decided to bypass the beach altogether - which I was completely okay with since I'm not a huge beach person.

After deciding not to go to the beach, we hung around the house for a little while after everyone else left for the beach and then decided to head to Cape May earlier and grab lunch there, and maybe stop at another winery for a wine tasting.   We ended up stopping at Turdo Vineyards for our first tasting, Lucky Bones Restaurant for lunch and then Cape May Winery & Vineyard for our tour.    This post will review our first stop, and then Ill go into more detail on another posting (or two) for lunch and the Cape May Winery Tour and Tasting.

Our first stop when getting into Cape May was Turdo Vineyards.  This is a small vineyard which makes about 200 cases of each type of wine and when they sell out for the year, they close shop.    When we visited, they had sold out of at least 1/3 of their wines, and she told us that they typically sell out of everything by labor day weekend. 

When arriving at the winery - you will think you are in the wrong spot, because it looks like you are at someone's personal house and they don't have a parking lot.    They recommend parking at the lot down the street, but since Adam is limited in how much he can walk, and I knew we would be walking on the wine tour and that night on the boardwalk, I didn't want to park down at the ball fields down the street.   Instead, I parked on the lawn after the house because I someone else did the same thing.  (Initially I thought that's where I was supposed to park until I walked up to the sign and saw that it said the ball field parking lot).   Anyways, once you park and walk up to the house, you see a small building to the side/back of the house and that is the tasting room - the house really is their personal house, and their backyard is the vineyard - wouldn't that be awesome.

We went in for the tasting, which was $5 for 5 wines.  I didn't save the tasting sheet - but I think they have about 10 wines available for tasting - 3 dry whites, 6 dry reds and 1 sweet red and 1 sweet white (I think that was the breakdown).   Additionally, they have some reserve collection wines which aren't available for tasting, and finally the owners son is starting his own label (Rossi) and currently has two wines with that.

Unfortunately for us, all the dry whites were out and a couple of the reds were out - so we tasted 4 dry reds and got to pick one of the two sweet wines.   I liked all the dry wines, Adam typically doesn't - and didn't - but we did agree on 2 of the dry reds - their Barbera and their Merlot.   To be honest, for the first time in a while I didn't take any notes on this day, and therefore (as I already mentioned) didn't save my tasting sheet - so I don't remember what the wines each tasted like - but I do know my taste buds lean more towards the dry, smooth wines and within that, Adam likes the smooth wines - and likes the ones that are more semi-dry.

Adam and I each tried one of the sweets, that way we were able to taste both.   The sweet red - which I believe was the Dolcetto was actually pretty dry with a dash of sweetness.    I typically don't like sweet wines, and in typical fashion - I didn't like this wine - but for a different reason.   I actually found it to be more dry than sweet - but it was really an odd combination of sugary sweet and dry.   The sweet white we tasted was the Moscato.   It wasn't a bad sweet wine, I just know that I won't sit there and drink a sweet wine, so its always a waste for me to buy, because I would have a few uses for it in cooking/baking and maybe have half a glass - and the rest would end up going to waste as I wouldn't be able to use it enough before it went bad.

Before we were done, I did ask if there were any wines that weren't on the tasting sheet that they had - because I noticed on the site that they had a Pinot Noir, and that wasn't on the sheet (even crossed out).   That's where I found out about the reserves not being available for taste - but they actually were sold out of even those reserve wines. At this same time, the woman who was doing our tasting did mention that Luca - the son - was just working on his own label and that those are available for sale - but not for tasting - and then she realized she did have a bottle of the red available for tasting because there was just an event or something.   Now this red was really good - the best one I had tasted there.   It was really smooth, semi-dry and flavorful, so I said I definitely wanted a bottle - and then she had to double check that there were ones available for sale and the price.   Good news is it was available.  Unfortunately, no white available.  We ended up walking out with a bottle of the Rossi label Red, the Turdo label Barbeca and Merlot.  

Additionally they had Gelato and Sorbetto that was made with their wine, and a few other Gelato flavors.   Adam wanted the Gelato with Moscato and Almonds, but they didn't have any, so he got the Sorbetto with Moscato and Peaches.   I ended up getting the Gelato with Rossi.  Both were yummy and delicious - mine a little more.   They are made by a gelato company in Cape May - so they can be found at that store front as well - unfortunately, don't know the name of the company.   I know - Im full of a lack of details!

If you are in Cape May and enjoy wine - this is a cute place to stop at - if its a nice day (like we had), take some time to relax on their patio with your own picnic or with wine and/or Gelato.

And if you do go to Cape May - let me know - lots more recommendations from our short trips there - and plenty more places and things we want to check out.