Cream Ridge and Silver Decoy wineries find summertime sunshine to be perfect for crops.
By: Scott Morgan
It’s been a hot, dry summer. Just the way vintners like it.
While most farmers tend to need more soggy, less heated weather conditions to grow their crops, growers of wine grapes have had a literal field day this year, according to Tom Amabile, resident grape expert at the Cream Ridge Winery in Upper Freehold Township. Mr. Amabile said his crop this season is simply "phenomenal."
"Every vineyard that I’ve talked to has said the same thing," Mr. Amabile said. "The grapes are absolutely superb."
Vintners can thank physics. Sunshine creates plant sugars and, like people, plants perspire when it gets too hot. As sugar builds and excess water sifts away, the flavors of the grapes become concentrated. This helps create the sugar/acid balance.
For Mr. Amabile, it’s all about the balance. A vintner, he said, does not want too much sugar, nor too much acid in the grapes. The ideal balance, he said, is somewhere around 23 percent sugar and 1 percent acid, which is pretty close to what he’s seen this year.
On Sept. 28 and Sept. 29, Cream Ridge Winery will host its "fruit crush" and pig roast. The winery is located on Route 539, east of Allentown. There will be live music, gourmet food tasting, wine tasting and tours. Admission is $7 for the event, which will be held rain or shine.
A testament to how good the grapes are this season could be the fact that the Silver Decoy Winery in Washington Township harvested its first-ever crop last weekend a full year ahead of schedule. Scott Carduner, one of eight founders of the new winery, said a good, workable grape crop typically takes three years to grow. But despite that Silver Decoy’s first planting occurred in spring 2001, the hot, dry summer has given the vineyard something to celebrate, Mr. Carduner said.
"The fact that we have something to harvest in the second year bodes well for us, I think," he said.
Still, Mr. Carduner and company have no previous crop to which they can compare this year’s yield. He said this season has worked well for the winery, but cannot say for sure that this is a bumper crop.
Tom Amabile, on the other hand, can. Mr. Amabile said this year’s grapes are similar to those in 1999, when the northeast experienced a drought that spun disaster for many farmers, but gold for vintners.
"I sympathize with the growers who need water," he said. But summer 2002 was just right for wine-growers.

