Wine I've toured the Napa and Willamette Valleys, and learned much about the wines of Virginia and New Jersey, and feel qualified to opine that any wine that has the funds and the need to advertise on national television is probably best used in salads. The wine world is vast and ancient and you won't regret the time you spend learning about some corner of it. I'll give just one tip: the great wines of France are not varietals, and there's a good reason for that. Bonne voyage. Now an opinion: Cabernet Sauvignon is not the King of Grapes and Chardonnay is not the Queen, any more than Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend. Beware the Culture of Marketing. Seek out the Small and Unusual and make _that_ part of your life. New Jersey wineries There are currently fifteen or so grape-growing wineries in the state, with about fifteen more expected soon. In 2002 I tried most of them. The quality varies; I list here four that I thought stood out for one reason or another. The trouble is, as with many regional wineries, most don't produce enough to distribute to big liquor store chains, so you won't see them unless you visit the wineries themselvesÐ although I saw a New Jersey section with Tomasello and I think Alba featured in the Wegmans wine store off Route 9 south in Manalapan, and Valenano now has their wine in stores all around the state, so things are looking up. But it's worth the trip to the winery anyway, and if you're driving, don't forget to spit. Tomasello Winery http://www.tomasellowinery.com/ This place has been making wine since 1933 and they have over twenty varieties plus some berry wines. One might call them the Horton of New Jersey. Their big-bottle red table wine has a colorful nickname reflecting their historical clientele (One might spell it "day go red".), and for the price you won't beat it anywhere. They bottle a varietal called Rkatsiteli, which has been called the Russian Riesling, and it's grown a lot in the Old Country where other grapes just can't ripen. It apparently grows fine in southern New Jersey. I like sweet wine, I love Riesling, and this stuff was great. (It was one of the available selections in that Wegmans, in fact.) Their Nevers Oak Chardonnay, though a bit pricey, is no more so than good California Chardonnay and no less satisfying. Valenzano Winery www.valenzanowine.com This is a young establishment that knows what it's doing. Everything they make is good, including a Concord varietal that doesn't taste like Welch's or Manischewitz (well... a little) and a great red table wine. They also make Cynthiana, using the same grape as Horton's Norton varietal: this one won an award recently and last time I was at the vineyard they'd sold out of it. With these guys and others just a few miles south of my place I need not look elsewhere for my fermented grape beverage needs. Amalthea Cellars www.amaltheacellars.com These guys are producing percentage- exact duplicates of famous French blends like Latour, Margaux and Petrus for about twenty bucks a bottle instead of the sixty and up (on to $3000 a BOTTLE) range of the originals from France, made from vinifera grapes grown right in the Garden State. Excellent stuff if you want to be a wine snob but still support local business. Also good for your education since blends and not varietals is where it's at for really good wine (except maybe Pinot!) We A/B'd Sylvin Farms 24 N. Vienna Ave Germania NJ 08215 609-965-1548 The name is spelled like that because the engraver made a mistake and then they kept it due to the French word "vin" meaning wine. I found the taste of their wines distinctive and attractive, and their enthusiasm quite engaging. Their Cabernet Franc was singular, at least this year. They're only open by appointment: I tasted their stuff at a Wine Festival. ********* Virginia wineries There are over sixty wineries in Virginia now, and it's likely you can't name a single one. In the late 90s I toured about twenty with my dad and our friend Tony; since then I've become acquainted with a few more. If all you want is Cabernet and Chardonnay, read no further. Virginia soil isn't too friendly to those varietals, but many others thrive and many makers turn them into fine wines. The following are the ones I recommend you try first: Breaux Vineyards www.breauxvineyards.com Excellent white wines and the other ones are fine too. No more to add: visit them and find out for yourself. Windham Winery www.windhamwinery.com This place is over the hill from Breaux, so they share a terroir, sort of. But I particularly liked the reds they made. Horton Cellars Winery www.hvwine.com Dennis Horton likes variety-- a fact reflected in the thirty-odd wines he and Joan Bieda make. The most famous, perhaps, is the Norton, an obscure, robust varietal native to Virginia, completely unlike Concord of the north and different enough from the European species to be worth a try-- and they make it very well. Their Stonecastle Red varies from year to year depending on varietal abundance, but the 1993 was one of the best table wines I've had. Barboursville Vineyards www.barboursvillewine.com The quality is quite even at this establishment. They make a blend called Octagon which would be good with any red meat meal, and their Cabernet Franc holds its own. Lest anyone wonder about cellaring possibilities, I can attest that the two abovementioned were still in top form after nine years. Can't speak for longer than that because it done been all drunk down now. Piedmont www.piedmontwines.com They specialize in vinifera grapes, meaning the well-known Cabernet, Chardonnay, and even Semillon, an underappreciated varietal in this country. High quality, fair price. Farfelu Vineyard www.farfeluwine.com I must mention this place for the wine that used to be made here. There was an amazing Chardonnay, before new owners John and Caroline Osborne took over from C.J. Raney, who retired. The grapes are from the same vines, I think, but the Osbornes don't double-ferment their Chardonnay as Raney did and the distinctive flavor is gone. I ran into a similar flavor in Tomasello's Nevers Oak Chardonnay, but for twice the price of Farfelu's. I'm sorry it's gone. I hope the Osbornes think it over and put their Chard grapes through malolactic again. Otherwise a real treasure is lost. ********** Oregon wineries The wines of Oregon are better known than those of New Jersey or Virginia, in that many people know that they exist, but that's not good enough. I prefer Oregon Pinot Noir to most wines of Burgundy, where that's the principal red wine grape. I will just list some names here and if you see them in a store you should try one, but even the lower-end names I won't mention are sure to please. If it's from Oregon, it's almost guaranteed to be good. Willakenzie Foris Griffin Creek Bishop Creek Panther Creek Ken Wright Thomas ...and especially... Chehalem. They are just different. Check them out. www.chehalemwines.com ********** Little-known California wineries With California represented in every wine store on the continent (probably), I was surprised to learn in the summer of '05 that there are many wineries you will never see on your local store shelf. I shouldn't have been surprised that so many people would want to try to cash in on the state's reputation for good wine (or at least huge volume of wine), but there are "boutique" wineries in California very similar to the ones back east. In Paso Robles country, we found a place called Rio Seco which does lovely table wine with names derived from Baseball. The tasting barn has a very colorful aura and history as well (ask them about the bulletholes.) Also a place called Pipestone, an organic winery that had thee most amazing Syrah we've ever come across. The winemaker told us that's they way the high end ones taste in France but most US vintners don't try to coax that flavor out of the grape. A steal for the price they were asking. Then there was Martin & Weyrich which you might see in a store, but for good full-fruited wines at an affordable price they can't be beat in their area. Gilroy, CA is the Garlic Capital of the U.S. It is also home to a bunch of wineries we noticed on the map while we were headed for Monterey. We picked Kirigin, because it was the most unusual name. I thought it might be Russian; it turned out to be Czech. But the winemaker, Michael Kreutzer, was a native Californian, trained at the universities there and managing Kirigin for the owner Mr. Kirigin who spends a lot of his time now back in the Old Country. Across the board these wines were (first) the best we tasted in California and (second) the best priced ones we found outside of Two Buck Chuck. Also a vinegar to die for (one might say the Mother of All Vinegars, pun intended) and an after-dinner port-like creation called Vino de Mocca which we can't recommend highly enough. But the plain old Kirigin Red alone made the side- trip worthwhile. The winery is the only place you can buy it, though, and they don't have their own website (not as of 11/05). If you are in central California, do what you must to get to Gilroy. A warning, though: Kreutzer was still the winemaker in ought five, but he has his own place called Dry Town Cellars which might take up too much of his time to stay at Kirigin much longer.