Except for one or two vineyards that may have left some grapes hanging on the vine to create a dessert wine—under the right conditions, the longer grapes hang, the higher their sugars are—the 2025 harvest in New Jersey is complete. Grapes have been crushed and are now becoming wine.
A few, such as Working Dog Winery’s 2025 Foch Nouveau or Cape May Winery’s 2025 Chambourcin Nouveau, have already hit the market and tasting room (go visit and see for yourself!). Others that need to age before their release, such as many of the Outer Coastal Plain wineries’ Couer d’Est red blends, may not be available to the public for several years.
Whether they’re released before the end of 2025 or half a decade from now, grapes picked this fall turn into the wines of the 2025 vintage. Those wines may vary in quantity or quality from the 2024 vintage or next year’s 2026 vintage.
Factors such as the date budbreak begins, late frosts in the spring after budbreak, too much rainfall, too little rainfall, amount of sunshine, and temperatures (both very hot days and unseasonably cold days) create variations in grapes from year to year. Even where a vineyard is located in the state can influence the fruit.
“Generally, we see a later budbreak in the northern part of the state and relatively earlier budbreak as you move south. Cape May is usually a bit before us at Cedar Rose Vineyards, maybe up to a week, and the northern region follows,” says Dustin Tarpine, one of the winery’s owners and a managing partner in the vineyard management company Vinetech that manages vineyards throughout the state.
At Terra Nonno Winery in Rosenhayn, located within the Outer Coastal Plain AVA, not far from Cedar Rose, budbreak happened approximately the last week in April or the first week in May, according to Adamo Pipitone, owner of the winery.
“The 2025 harvest was only good at best,” says Pipitone. “For some reason, most of our varieties did not produce well.”
He estimates that they harvested 20 percent fewer grapes than in 2024, and the only variety that produced well for Terra Nonno was their Barbera. That does mean, however, the grapes that were harvested weren’t of good quality. It simply means the quantity wasn’t as high as in 2024.
“Despite a little more rain this season, the wines will be of great quality,” he predicts, noting that the brix (the amount of sugar in the grapes) and the resulting fermentations were “spot on.”
At Federal Twist Vineyard in Stockton, located within the Central Delaware Valley AVA, budbreak happened on April 24. Harvest began five months later, on September 30, when they started picking their Traminette grapes, which vineyard manager Linda McKeegan says had a “Good +” vintage regarding quantity. Despite the use of nets and hawk kites, starlings, birds that have a huge appetite for grapes, found a way to feast on some of the Traminette grapes as well as the Blaufrankisch grapes.
Still, there was enough Traminette to go into the winery’s popular Hey Bett wine, a field blend of Traminette and Vidal Blanc, but the 2025 may still be different than the 2024.
When the 2025 Traminette grapes came in, they had slightly higher sugars than the 2024 Traminette grapes.
“We’ll be looking to see the impact on the flavor,” says McKeegan. She also notes that the hot summer leading into moderate temperatures and a dry fall in Federal Twist’s region contributed to perfect conditions to ripen fruit.
Meanwhile, down at Cedar Rose in Rosenhyan, Tarpine says the 2025 harvest was “average to above average.”
“Our whites came in beautifully, but just prior to picking our reds, we did catch some stray storms that missed others in the state,” he says. “This complicated harvest decisions a bit and caused some fruit degradation.”
“I feel this year illustrates the unpredictability of our vintages here in New Jersey,” says Tarpine. “Depending on where you are, you may have had an excellent vintage or a mediocre one. It will be interesting to explore the wines of the 2025 vintage from a regional perspective. I imagine there will be noticeable quality differences across the state.”
That’s normal, as normal as the noticeable differences between 2024 and 2025 vintages from Cedar Rose’s Silica, a blend of Albariño, Viognier, and Sauvignon Blanc, as an example.
“Our 2025 Silica is quite a bit weightier than the 2024. In 2024, we had consistently cooler nights, which slowed the ripening process a bit. I think the warmer nights in 2025 contributed to additional ripeness and slightly heavier body for this white wine, in addition to riper flavors of peach and less citrus,” he says.
While there may be differences between the 2024 grapes that created Silica and the 2025 grapes that went into this year’s Silaca, due to the talent of the winemaker, those who drink it will most likely find both well-made. Despite a lower quantity of grapes or a shift in quality or characteristics of grapes due to growing season conditions, in the hands of a seasoned winemaker, the wine should shine.
Thankfully, in New Jersey, from our northernmost wineries to those at the southern tip of the state, talent abounds, and we can look forward to many well-made wines from 2025.
Photo Credit: Cape May Winery
Cape May Winery Grapes
Photo Credit: Federal Twist Vineyards
Federal Twist Mid-Harvest
