Antonia DiBona's Wine Blog
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5th November 2014
Antonia DiBona's Wine Blog
Wine is not a new phenomenon for New Jersey. In fact there was a fascination with grape growing since the colonial times. In 1765 Edward Antill planted eight hundred vines of Vitis vinifera, or the European grape. William Alexander similarly planted 2100 vines. The Royal Society of England awarded both a prize for making wine reminiscent of the wine drank in England. Because advances in technology hadn’t reached the point of combating the American insect, Phylloxera, that attacked the European grape roots, early New Jersey wine growers chose to grow American/French hybrids and Vitis labrusca, an American grape that didn’t succumb to the insect. The east coast is one of the few places you can taste such wines and they are still grown today. Casey Economides manager at Amalthea Cellars in Atco says hybrids “are what sets us apart from other regions in the country because we are able to grow these French-American hybrids, for example Traminette, which is seen throughout South Jersey and the Finger Lakes.”