Cape May County Wineries Seeking Distinction

In Cape May County all six wineries are banding together to acquire a shared individuality. Jessie Creek, Willow Creek, Natali, Turdo, Hawk Haven and Cape May vineyards/wineries are currently all recognized as a particular American Viticulture Area (AVA) known as the Outer Coastal Plains.
AVAs are official grape growing/wine producing regions of the U.S. that are designated by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. The Outer Coastal Plains AVA covers over 2.25 million acres in southeastern New Jersey; this wide net also includes vineyards in towns far north and inland such as Sewell and Franklinville. Since 2013, the Cape May County vineyard and winery owners have been discussing the advantages of applying for an appellation (area distinction) of their current AVA and working steadily toward that goal.
Carole Mattessich, the economic development coordinator for the county, explained one reason for pursuing the AVA appellation. “When Napa Valley vineyards produce wine,” Mattessich said, “they love to put ‘Napa Valley vineyards’ on their labels because it’s world-renowned wine. But Napa Valley is one huge appellation, and within that region there are many sub-appellations, all unique, depending on the valley or particular area in which a vineyard is located.”
“Cape May County wineries are distinct from the others in the Outer Coastal Plains,” said Al Natali, owner of Natali Vineyards in Court House. Natali has been leading the effort to label local wineries with a ‘Cape May Peninsula’ appellation to the Outer Coastal Plains AVA. “A designation of ‘Cape May Peninsula’ would distinguish this as a unique viticulture area,” Natali said. “But it’s not like you can just ask the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau for a distinction and they give it to you. You have to prove: what makes you so unique? What makes you so special? Why do you deserve to be something different than what you already are? We’re attempting to demonstrate that because of the peninsula’s location, surrounded by two large bodies of salt water (Atlantic Ocean and Delaware Bay), that we have special growing conditions here in Cape May County that enable us to cultivate varieties of grape that are more wine friendly.”
Natali is referring to vitis vinifera – these are European grapes like chardonnay, merlot, nebbiolo and pinot gris. “These are more difficult, though not impossible, and more risky to grow the further north you go,” Natali said.
A nearly final draft of the application is being reviewed by all the wineries. It includes a lengthy narrative explaining the reasons they believe they deserve their own viticulture area, as well as a hefty amount of supporting geographical data. Factoring into the equation are Cape May County’s unique climate, rainfall, and growing degree days (average heat accumulation) as well as winter lows, summer highs and frost free days. “All this compiled information demonstrates that this area is unique,” Natali said.
Rutgers University took a census and each vineyard responded in terms of number of acres they plant, what kind of vines/grapes they grow and how much wine they produce. These records were then compared to records in similar areas up north.
With help from the county, a comparison was also made between the airports of Cape May County and Millville. It was found that rainfall, dew point and wind speeds were similar (which was not surprising) but that there was a big difference in factors such as frost-free days.
“We have around 205 frost free days whereas Millville has 160-170,” Natali shared. “That’s a huge difference. Also, Millville’s winter lows are lower than they are here. During the polar vortex we got down to just about zero degrees but they got down to -11. Zero is the killing ground for these European wine grapes. Another factor is that their summer highs are higher to the north. So our nighttime temps are a little lower and therefore the buildup of growing degree days is more gradual, rather than abrupt.”
Freeholder Will Morey is especially excited about the AVA appellation that the wineries are pursuing. “What a fantastic demonstration of a private/public initiative,” Morey said. “The notion of more accurately describing the Cape May Peninsula is really appropriate for our wineries. We’re excited about that as a description that has good energy and clearly outlines our region as unique. The county has some really capable systems and without those kind of resources we probably wouldn’t be talking about filing an application for an appellation for another five years.”
One way the county has been helping the wineries get their application ready is by providing research technologies such as Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping. The GIS is a computer system that integrates, stores, edits, analyzes and displays geographic information.
Using satellites, the GIS takes an overlay of all property lines, natural features, addresses, businesses, homes, etc.
“It’s just been fantastic the way we’ve been able to pair the technological data with this application,” said Morey. “The giant information database is applied to mapping and allows to differentiate between soils and natural resource variations. The wineries were able to use that system to outline the area that would be specifically included in the Cape May Peninsula appellation.”
Leslie Gimeno, county planning director, was involved with the GIS mapping of Cape May County wineries. “We have data layers that are all geo-referenced,” Gimeno said.
“We were able to draw the draft boundary and overlay it on satellite images, so you can actually see the boundary and how it relates. This data demonstrates how this area differs in characteristic form Outer Coastal Plain as a whole.”
Gimeno said that the soil in Cape May County is also a big part of the GIS mapping. “There’s a different soil here than in the remainder of the Outer Coastal Plain,” she said. “We have a little longer growing season as well. And a little more moderate temperature overall and that’s caused by the area being a peninsula being surrounded by water.”
“We are in a very unique area,” agreed Mattessich. “We have bay to ocean breezes that dry the grape leaves in a manner different than other areas of New Jersey where the moisture on grape leaves is absorbed or dried. That actually affects the taste of wine grapes. Whether it’s the acidity or the salinity … that particular factor leads to our wines having a somewhat distinctly flavor that you can’t get in other areas.”
The Outer Coastal Plains AVA came to be a distinction in 2007. According to Natali, the application process was two years in the making. “It takes a lot of time to hatch these things,” he said. “We hope to do better than that with the Cape May Peninsula appellation; but as winemakers, we’re used to being patient.”
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