Local winemaking, long dismissed as underwhelming, is entering a new era with ambitious vintners like Vietri, who represent not only dramatic growth in the regional industry but a surprising step up in quality and respect.
Aided by new technologies to maximize harvests on limited acreage, better European vine stock for our climate, and a promised bump in Pennsylvania marketing money, the industry is also gaining momentum as a profitable way to preserve small family farms.
With a growing national interest in both wine and all foods local, the timing of the surge makes sense.
In Pennsylvania, the number of wineries has nearly tripled since 1999, from 42 to 115, says Mark Chien of the Penn State Cooperative Extension. At least four more are on track to open next year in the Philadelphia region, adding to the 48 established in the southeast part of the state.
South Jersey's winemakers also inched toward legitimacy in March by winning federal American Viticultural Area designation for the "Outer Coastal Plain," which covers 16 wineries in the southern half of the state. Not unlike a French appellation controlee, AVA designation has also been granted to Napa and Sonoma, among other regions.
No doubt, much of the local wine is still plonk, crushed from American hybrid grapes like sweet Niagara or chambourcin. Casino-bound tourists still buy bottles of insipid blueberry "champagne" and treacly Pink Lady by the busload on their way to Atlantic City. And most of Pennsylvania's grapes - 12,000 of 13,000 acres - are still used to make Welch's jelly, Chien says.
