The Washington Lake Park Wine Festival in Sewell was held on June 24 and June 25. I attended on Sunday 6/25 with my wife and friends. I must say I feel very fortunate that we live so close to two great parks which we enjoy on a regular basis. On this weekend Washington Lake Park was transformed into one of the best wine festivals around. 16 wineries were represented. The picture above does not convey the large crowd enjoying the festival (just my attempt to avoid capturing random faces who may not want to be photographed). In addition to the wineries, there were also several great food trucks, a number of crafters and artisans, as well as live music provided by Right Turn at 40, providing the soundtrack for the day.
The following wineries were represented at the festival:
- Amalthea Cellars
- Auburn Road Vineyards
- Cava Winery
- Cedarvale Winery
- Chestnut Run Farm
- Coda Rossa
- DiBella Winery
- DiMatteo Vineyards
- Monroeville Vineyard
- Natali Vineyards
- Plagido’s Winery
- Southwind Vineyard
- Tomasello Winery
- Valentano Winery
- Villari Vineyards
- WagonHouse Winery
My approach to these festivals is always to taste those who don’t do as many festivals or that I have not recently visited and then to hone in on old favorites. It is nearly impossible to taste all wines (even with a designated driver your palate becomes numbed). Given this strategy, my personal highlights from this pasture of plenty were: Amalthea’s Petite Chablis (the bargain of the day at $10); Elara (an interesting white blend); and Green Dragon Pinot Noir; Auburn Road’s Sole and White Bottle; Natali Vineyards Nonna’s Cellar and Sauvignon Blanc; and Cava’s Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir. I should mention that Cava is the only winery located outside of South Jersey (they actually had to travel almost three hours from the top of the state). I enjoyed the Cava Cab with a pulled pork, BBQ Pork sandwich from Carolina Blue Smokehouse’s fabulous food truck.
These festivals are a real challenge to the wineries. While they get a chance to show off and sell their wines and get their name out there for those who have not visited them, they also have to “mind the store” at their winery, while packing up cases of their wine and carting them around the state. Unfortunately, this also means that as a consumer you will not be able to taste some wines from most of the wineries. So I did miss some of my favorites, but was pleased to be able to try so many good ones and to discover some new gems.
While I’m not sure how profitable the weekend was for the various wineries, I can vouch for my experience (and those with me) on Sunday as being one of our more enjoyable wine festivals. Even the weather cooperated (a rare thing for our weekends in South Jersey these days). I look forward to the Washington Lake Park Wine Festival next year.
Coming Next: Beneduce Vineyards Revisited. This will be the first of several Central Jersey revisits.
Coming Soon: Alba Vineyard, Old York Cellars and Unionville Vineyards.
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Tried a New Jersey wine lately? Visited a NJ winery recently? Share your experience here.
Cheers!
