April & May 2019

2004, and 2010 was the first bottled vintage.
Staff members said they can’t keep up with
demand. The first-taste suggestion: Wilde
Cock Red, a dry red from merlot and petite
shiraz grapes at $26 a bottle.
Turdo Vineyards and Winery
3911 Bayshore Road, North Cape May
What to Drink: Nero D’Avola
Nero D’Avola, the black grape of Avola in
southeast Sicily, is rarely cultivated in the
United States, but called one of the most
important grapes in Sicilian wines. So it
makes sense that Salvatore Turdo, originally
from Sicily, would have some on hand when
he started a winery.
His son Luca Turdo, an owner and one of
the winemakers, said his parents were both
born in Sicily. His mom was from the city,
but Salvatore — usually shorted to Turi there
rather than Sal — grew up in the country,
growing lemons, grapes, olives and wheat,
and always, always making wine.
“He learned from his grandfather in
Sicily, and when he moved to the States in
the early ’70s, he used to make wine in the
garage,” said Luca. He started the winery in
1999 and opened the tasting room in 2002.
Turdo is best known for their Italian
styles, including prizewinning Barbera and
Sangiovese wines. They also make white
wine from another Sicilian grape, Grillo, and
according to Luca, as far as they can tell they
are the only commercial winery growing it
in the US. He suggested the Nero D’Avola as
the best starting point to experience Turdo
wines. They describe the finished wine as
very elegant, showing lots of fruit. Bottle
prices range from $17 to $35.
Natali Vineyards
221 North Delsea Drive, Goshen
What to Drink: Albariño
Alfred Natali had a career on Wall Street
before he bought an old horse farm on Route
47 in the Goshen section of Middle Township
in 2000. He said he spent a year getting
the soil ready for the vines before planting.
He also attended UC Davis in northern California,
one of the top viticulture schools in
the country. He has 22 acres on the site.
If you like white wine, he recommends
his Albariño, a grape that thrives in northwest
Spain and Portugal, or Viognier. For
red, he’s going with their Nebiollo. He says
he’s got 15 kinds of grapes on four different
root stocks, with varietals from throughout
Europe. In the European style of winemaking,
a vineyard or a region typically cultivates
a single type of vinefra, not a dozen, but
Natali points out that in those areas they’ve
had hundreds of years of experience telling
them which grape does best where. In Cape
May, he said, wine makers have had 20. To
make a winery work, he said, a vintner needs
three things from his grapes: they have to
survive the winter, they need to have enough
yield per acre to make it worthwhile, and
ultimately they have to produce a good wine.
Jessie Creek Winery
1 North Delsea Drive, Cape May Court House
What to Drink: Stratus
Every vineyard starts with a story, and Jessie
Creek’s starts with Dr. Bruce Morrison
riding his Harley Road King along the back
roads of Cape May County and onto a vineyard
off Route 47. He was looking to buy a
vineyard, and he said he and former owner
Joe Yuzzi just hit it off from the start. Yuzzi
grew grapes for other wineries in the area,
and there was a house built in the 1800s on
the site. The name is a combination of Yuzzi’s
mother’s name and Dias Creek.
Morrison, a family practice doctor in
Huntington Valley, PA, has long dreamed of
owning a vineyard. A bed and breakfast inn
Award-winning Cape May Brewing
Company has more than 100
flagship, seasonal and small-batch
brews under their umbrella.
exit zero 119 april-may