Welcome back for another winery experience review!
Last weekend we stopped at the Cape May Winery while down the shore. The Cape May Winery is located in Cape May, New Jersey and opened to the public back in 1995. If you enjoy wineries and have been to Cape May before, there’s a good chance that you’ve been to this winery already. It is one of the more well-known wineries in the area.
Before we get into our wine tasting experience, we do want to mention that the Cape May Winery sits in the new Cape May Peninsula AVA (for more information on AVA’s, click HERE). This AVA is the newest to New Jersey and a total of six wineries fall into it. The six wineries will begin to list the new AVA on their bottles soon (if not already)!
Now to our experience! We’ve been to the Cape May Winery many times before, so the overall experience was not new to us this time. We did decide to do a tasting to see what new vintages and varietals the winery has to offer. Tastings are $10/person and you get to sample six different wines (and keep you souvenir glass). Ed and I both tried the same six wines, which were:
2016 Barrel Fermented Chardonnay
2015 Cape May Pinot Noir
2017 Cape May Chardonnay
2017 Cape May Sauvignon Blanc
Cape May Rose
Isaac Smith Red Port
Our three favorites were the 2017 Chardonnay, Rose, and Red Port. The 2017 Cape May Chardonnay is fermented in stainless steel so you get a lot of fruit and acidity on the finish. The Cape May Rose is well-balanced and crisp. We believe they use Chambourcin grapes to make their Rose, which may be why we enjoyed it so much (Chambourcin is our favorite varietal)! Finally, the Isaac Smith Red Port is fermented with brandy to increase the alcohol content. You first take a sip as-is and then you enjoy it with dark chocolate which gives you an entirely different experience.
Recently, the Cape May Winery opened a tap room which serves a total of eight of their wines on tap. You are able to enjoy them by the glass, carafe, growler, or a flight of three. They also have a tapas menu to enjoy with your wines on tap. Highly recommended for an afternoon of day drinking and eating at the shore!
Please see below for our scorecard for the Cape May Winery. We recommend stopping if you have not been already. There are plenty of winery options in the Cape May Peninsula, so search around and find which ones are your personal favorites! We’d love to hear which ones you prefer!
Wine is calling, we must go!
Nick & Ed
