The Garden State Wine Growers Association, recently hosted a Zoom presentation April 30, 2021 on the history of the Blaufränkisch/Lemberger grape by noted wine grape geneticist Dr. José Vouillamoz, best known for his foundational contribution to Wine Grapes. In addition to his talk about the history and unique characteristics of the grape Dr. Vouillamoz also conducted a tasting of five New Jersey Blaufränkisch wines with the assembled media.
During the hour’s presentation, moderated by international wine communications expert David Furer who was joined by 15 journalists, Dr. Vouillamoz said that the first written mention of Blaufränkisch harkened to 1862 in Vienna, Austria though revealing its geographic origin to be from Slovenia, then within Austria’s empire. He also discussed how Blaufränkisch got its name because of the blue tint of the grape skin.
You can view the presentation here
Dr. Vouillamoz
“It was an exciting discovery for me as for the first time, I had Blaufränkisch wine from New Jersey,” noted Dr. Vouillamoz in his final words to the media. “I’m really excited. Congratulations to all the producers. The result is really fantastic and fascinating.”
Bellview Winery in Landisville, NJ was one of the earliest New Jersey wineries to plant Blaufränkisch producing it’s first vintage in 2001. Owner Jim Quarella has been impressed with its quality.
“Blaufränkisch has proven to one of our premier red wine grape varieties,” said Quarella. “It has produced consistent quality grapes through varying seasonal conditions. The wine is very approachable, pairs with many types of food and can be consumed young, yet has great aging potential.”
The wines tasted included four Blaufränkisch wines produced from wineries in the sandy loam soil of the Outer Coastal Plain Viticultural Area (AVA), located in the southeastern portion of the state. The Outer Coastal Plain AVA extends from Monmouth County down through South Jersey and includes the sub-AVA of Cape May Peninsula, and is the largest of New Jersey’s four AVAs. A fifth Blaufränkisch hailed from Hunterdon County, an area with a higher elevation that the ‘OCP’, yet not contained within a designated AVA.
The five wines tasted were from:
Bellview Winery, Landisville 2016
Beneduce Vineyards, Pittstown Blu 2 2017
Cedar Rose Vineyards, Millville 2016
Sharrott Winery, Hammonton 2019
Terra Nonno Winery & Vineyard, Millville 2018
Winemakers/owners participating in the presentation were: Mike Beneduce, Beneduce Vineyards, Jim and Scott Quarella, Bellview Winery, Dustin Tarpine, Cedar Rose Vineyards, and Larry Sharrott, Sharrott Winery.
