Winery Visit: Meadowbrook Winery, New Jersey

Meadowbrook Winery is a quieter, more serious operation tucked into the state's agricultural interior — and one of New Jersey's newest wineries. Located in a beautiful stretch of the Garden State that most visitors never find, it is the kind of place that rewards the effort of seeking it out and leaves you with a revised opinion of what New Jersey wine can be.

I made the drive on a partly cloudy September afternoon with my son — the kind of day when the air carries the first faint suggestion of autumn. Serious wine, unhurried hospitality, a beautiful piece of New Jersey farmland. That is what a good winery visit is supposed to feel like.

The winemaker, Conor Quilty, is young, but brings along a wealth of experience from stints in the Alexander Mountains, Sonoma Valley, Sonoma Coast, and McLaren Vale before planting his roots as the winemaker at New Jersey's Unionville Vineyards for five years. We hope to follow this story with a one-on-one interview with Conor — his perspective on East Coast Cabernet Franc is one worth hearing at length.

Meadowbrook's estate vineyards are planted primarily to Cabernet Franc and Chardonnay, with additional blocks of supporting varieties that contribute to blends and single-varietal bottlings.

Cabernet Franc is the heart of the program — and that choice was not accidental. Too many New Jersey wineries, and even producers elsewhere in the Northeast, try to grow Cabernet Sauvignon, which often struggles in this environment simply because of its popularity. I was glad to see that Meadowbrook has not made that mistake. Cabernet Franc has a natural affinity for the East Coast's long, warm growing seasons — it ripens reliably in conditions where Cabernet Sauvignon often does not. Meadowbrook has committed to exploring the full range of what the grape can express, and the multiple Cabernet Franc bottlings in the lineup are not redundant. Each one approaches the variety from a different angle, with different winemaking choices producing wines of genuinely distinct character.

New Jersey's climate — warm summers, long autumns, soils that drain well and stress the vine productively — suits the variety in ways that have been demonstrated at serious producers across the state. Meadowbrook has taken that potential and pushed it further than most.

Chardonnay occupies the other half of the program, with both a standard and a reserve bottling that demonstrate the variety's range in the New Jersey terroir. The estate's Chardonnay sites are positioned to maximize air circulation and moderate the summer heat that can push the grape toward over-ripeness — the result is wines with more freshness and precision than the warm-climate stereotype of East Coast Chardonnay would suggest.

Our tasting hostess was Kelsey Martinez, who manages the almost one-year-old tasting room that overlooks one of the vineyards. With floor-to-ceiling windows, the view is both beautiful and relaxing. There is also an outdoor patio area with Adirondack chairs and tables — the kind of setup that makes it easy to lose an afternoon.

Kelsey was extremely knowledgeable, drawing on many years in the restaurant and wine business. She guided us through the lineup with the confidence of someone who genuinely understands what is in the glass, not just what is on the label.

We tasted six wines — three red, all Cabernet Franc, and three white. I also purchased a bottle of each, so my tasting notes here will be brief. I will follow up with more in-depth notes as I work through each wine at home.

This was the first whole berry wine I have had, and it made an immediate impression. Whole berry fermentation — a technique borrowed from Beaujolais, where uncrushed grapes undergo carbonic or semi-carbonic maceration — produces a Cabernet Franc of unusual freshness and aromatic vibrancy. Hand-harvested fruit is picked for acidity and left as whole berries with 25% whole cluster inclusion to encourage carbonic maceration.

The color is a bright, translucent ruby. The nose is all red fruit — fresh cherry, raspberry, a hint of pomegranate. This is not a wine that is trying to be serious so much as it is trying to be delicious, and it succeeds completely. It was served slightly chilled. The willingness to step outside the conventional Cabernet Franc playbook and produce something genuinely different is exactly the kind of creative confidence that makes a young winery worth watching. I absolutely loved it.

The most ambitious wine in the lineup and the one that makes the strongest case for Meadowbrook as a serious producer. The Reserve is made from the estate's best Cabernet Franc blocks, drawn from two of the vineyard's finest barrels.

The color is a deep, saturated ruby-garnet. The nose is layered and precise: dark cherry, dried herbs, a hint of graphite and violet, the subtle vanilla and cedar of well-integrated oak. On the palate the wine is structured and serious — firm but fine-grained tannins, bright acidity that keeps the fruit lifted, a long finish with notes of dark fruit, tobacco, and a mineral quality that speaks clearly of the estate's well-drained soils.

This is a wine that will reward three to five years in the cellar, though it is already showing beautifully. The Reserve Cabernet Franc is the clearest statement of what the estate is capable of — and what New Jersey Cabernet Franc can be at its best.

The 2022 sits between the Whole Berry and the Reserve in both style and ambition — a more classically structured expression of the variety than the Whole Berry, with more depth and weight than the current vintage Reserve needs to show at this stage of its development. Riper fruit, softer tannins, and a roundness that makes this the most immediately approachable of the three Cabernet Franc reds.

This is the bottle to open tonight with a roast chicken or a plate of pasta — a wine that delivers genuine pleasure without demanding patience or ceremony.

The most unexpected wine in the lineup and, for many visitors, the most memorable. White Cabernet Franc — made by pressing the red grape immediately after harvest, with minimal skin contact, to produce a white or very pale pink wine — is a style that has been gaining traction among adventurous East Coast producers. Meadowbrook's version is one of the most convincing examples I have encountered.

This is a wine for the curious drinker — someone who wants to understand what a grape can do when approached from an unexpected angle. It is also a genuinely versatile food wine: the combination of white wine freshness and Cabernet Franc herbal character makes it a natural partner for everything from grilled fish to roasted vegetables to a summer cheese plate.

The estate Chardonnay is the most straightforward wine in the lineup, in the best possible sense — a clean, well-made expression of the variety that delivers what it promises without pretension or complication.

The color is a pale gold. The nose shows green apple, lemon zest, a hint of white peach, and a faint floral note. On the palate the wine is medium-bodied with bright acidity, crisp fruit, and a clean, refreshing finish. Exactly what it should be.

The Reserve Chardonnay is where the program's ambitions for the variety become clear. Barrel fermented in French oak — a portion new — the Reserve develops a richness and complexity that the estate bottling does not attempt. The winemaking choices are confident and well-calibrated: enough oak to add texture and depth, not so much that the fruit is obscured.

This is an excellent Chardonnay.

Six wines. Six distinct expressions of what Meadowbrook's estate can produce. Not a weak bottle in the lineup.

What struck me most, tasting through the range, was the coherence of the program — the sense that every wine, from the playful Whole Berry to the serious Reserve Cabernet Franc, was made with a clear intention and executed with genuine skill. That coherence is the mark of a winemaker who knows exactly what they are trying to do and has the technical command to do it.

New Jersey wine has been making a quiet, steady case for itself over the past two decades, and Meadowbrook is one of the producers making that case most convincingly.

If you find yourself in New Jersey wine country — and you should — Meadowbrook belongs at the top of your list. The Reserve Cabernet Franc alone is worth the drive. The White Cabernet Franc will give you something to think about on the way home.

Meadowbrook Winery — New Jersey wine country. Call ahead for tasting room hours and to confirm availability of specific bottlings, as production quantities are limited and the best wines move quickly.