2025 A Standout Year for Jersey Wine

If you stream your music on Spotify, did you immediately click through earlier this month when your Spotify Wrapped dropped, showing you your 2025 top artists, genres, and more? It’s fun to look back on the things you enjoyed as the year ends, doesn’t it? So we thought we’d look back at some of the things we enjoyed in the New Jersey wine industry in 2025, focusing on what new things happened, just in case you missed them.

New Jersey Wines Bring Home the Gold in National Competitions

Wine competitions are entered voluntarily by wineries. They choose which wines they want to send to the competition. The wineries that enter these competitions and bring home gold and double gold medals should have an end-of-year shout-out and a round of applause.

2025 American Wine Society Competition

The American Wine Society celebrates the accomplishments of U.S. winemakers.

Tomasello Winery 2022 Outer Coastal Plain Blaufränkisch: Double Gold
Tomasello Winery Cranberry Wine: Gold and Best of Class Fruit Wine
Tomasello Winery 2023 Epilogue (Riesling Ice Wine) – Double Gold and Best of Class Dessert Wine

New Jersey wines also earned silver medals at the American Wine Society competition. A full list of all medals can be found here.

2025 Finger Lakes International Wine and Spirits Competition

The Finger Lakes International Wine & Spirits Competition is one of the largest charitable wine and spirits competitions in the United States.

Old York Cellars Peach Wine – Double Gold Medal
Sharrott Winery 2021 Wicked – Gold Medal
Working Dog Winery 20223 Traminette – Gold Medal

New Jersey wines also earned silver medals at the Finger Lakes competition. A full list of all medals can be found here.

2025 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition

The San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition is the largest competition of American wines in the country.

Auburn Road Vineyards 2023 Pinot Grigio – Double Gold
Bellview Winery 2022 Chardonnay – Double Gold
Auburn Road Vineyards 2023 Dry Rose – Gold
Auburn Road Vineyards 2023 Vidal Blanc – Gold
Sharrott Winery NV Cabernet Franc – Gold
Sharrott Winery 2020 Wicked – Gold

New Jersey wines also earned silver medals at the San Francisco Chronicle competition. A full list of all medals can be found here.

Changes at Wineries

We didn’t gain any new wineries in 2025, but there were some exciting changes at existing ones.

Working Dog Winery in Hightstown started the year with new owners. Changing hands for the first time since its launch in 2001, the winery is now owned by Carlee Ludwig, Sharon Kyle, and Kevin Kyle. They are keeping the winery’s name the same.

Iron Plow Vineyards in Columbus was also sold, and the new owners have changed the name to Tramonti Vineyards. They’re still selling bottles with the Iron Plow label, and we look forward to seeing the changes to come at this beautiful estate.

Both Federal Twist Vineyard and Meadwbrook Winery, neither of which previously had tasting rooms on their properties that were open to the public, opened tasting rooms at their wineries. Federal Twist’s opened in April, and Meadowbrook’s opened in October.

The Debut of the Terroir New Jersey Showcase

This new event was ot a competition, but a professional analysis. Last summer, the first Terroir New Jersey Showcase brought a professional panel of evaluators from around the world to independently assess wines made from New Jersey-grown fruit on their merits, identifying quality indicators. Each winery received valuable feedback on the wines they voluntarily entered, and wines that achieved a minimum evaluation rating were designated Selections.

See the wines that were evaluated as Premier Selections and Showcase Selections here.

New Jersey Wines Go to Italy!

We enjoyed following the adventures of Julianne and Scott Donini of Auburn Road Vineyards on Instagram as they criss-crossed northern Italy to celebrate wines from Auburn Road and Bellview Winery with sommeliers and tastemakers at sold-out tasting events in Milan, Torino, Verona, and Florence in November.

The 2025 NJ Wine Expo

While the second-annual NJ Wine Expo held in November wasn’t a new event, we can’t let a year-end wrap-up happen without a mention of our successful event. Over 1,300 people walked through the doors of Bell Works in Holmdel to experience New Jersey wine at the biggest yearly gathering of New Jersey wineries. Take a moment to watch this video and see the venue, the wines, the energetic crowd, and the joy that happens when people gather to celebrate New Jersey wine!