A Thursday Tasting at Working Dog Winery: Discovering the Red Wines of New Jersey

There is something particularly satisfying about visiting a winery during harvest season. The vineyards are still alive with the energy of the growing season, the cellar is preparing for another vintage, and every glass provides an opportunity to understand a little more about the place where the wine was made.

That was the setting for our Thursday, September 24 visit to Working Dog Winery in Hightstown, New Jersey, where I sat down for a tasting focused entirely on red wines. My son, the White Wine Expert (so he says), couldn't make the trip.

And what a tasting it turned out to be.

The lineup included six wines: 2023 Maréchal Foch, 2023 Syrah, 2023 Sangiovese, 2023 Merlot, 2023 Cabernet Franc, and Open Source Cabernet Franc. Together, they provided an impressive look at what this New Jersey vineyard can accomplish with both familiar European varieties and a cold-hardy hybrid that deserves considerably more attention.

Working Dog Winery sits among the rolling farmland of Mercer County at 610 Windsor Perrineville Road in Hightstown. The vineyard dates to 2001, and today the winery welcomes visitors Thursday through Sunday, with a tasting room, all-season patio, and expansive lawn. You can plan your visit and browse their current releases at workingdogwinerynj.com.

For anyone who still thinks of New Jersey wine as something of a curiosity, a tasting at Working Dog offers a useful counterargument.

The winery grows an interesting collection of varieties, but its reds were the focus of this visit — and the progression from Maréchal Foch through Cabernet Franc demonstrated just how varied New Jersey red wine can be.

I began with one of the more distinctive grapes in the lineup: Maréchal Foch. This is the first time I have ever tasted this grape, and I was truly surprised.

This cold-hardy French-American hybrid may be unfamiliar to many wine drinkers, but Working Dog's 2023 bottling makes a persuasive case for giving it a chance. The estate-grown wine offers blackberry and tobacco aromas followed by red currant and huckleberry flavors, along with a touch of orange peel. Bright acidity keeps everything lively, while the texture is surprisingly silky. Working Dog even recommends serving it slightly chilled.

It is an excellent reminder that American wine does not have to revolve exclusively around the internationally famous grapes. Sometimes the most interesting glass on the table is the one made from the grape you know the least about. This is a MUST try.

Next came the 2023 Syrah, another estate-grown wine.

Here the profile moved toward darker fruit and spice. Working Dog describes violet and dried blueberry on the nose, followed by black plum and white pepper, with huckleberry appearing on the finish.

Syrah can take on dramatically different personalities depending on where it is grown, which makes tasting an East Coast interpretation especially interesting. Rather than judging it against California, Washington, Australia, or France's Rhône Valley, it is worth approaching this wine on its own terms — as an expression of Syrah grown in New Jersey. That's part of the fun of exploring America's emerging and lesser-known wine regions.

The 2023 Sangiovese brought another change of direction.

This wine is actually a blend of 77% Sangiovese, 13% Merlot, and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon. Medium garnet in color, it offers Bing cherry, red raspberry, and sweet baking spices on the nose. Tart cherry, black currant, fresh tobacco, and roasted tomato emerge on the palate, followed by thyme and vanilla on a long, fresh finish.

Those savory tomato, herb, and cherry characteristics immediately suggest why Sangiovese remains such a natural partner for food. Working Dog recommends pizza, Eggplant Parmesan, Bolognese, and hard Italian cheeses — and it isn't difficult to imagine this bottle becoming a particularly enjoyable companion at the dinner table.

Then came a grape Americans know extremely well: Merlot. This was another very pleasant surprise that I did not expect from a New Jersey-grown Merlot.

Working Dog's estate-grown 2023 Merlot is 100% Merlot, displaying medium ruby color with garnet at the rim. Black plum, cinnamon, and vanilla lead the aromas, while cassis, anise, and black cherry add complexity on the palate. The winery notes that the wine possesses notable tannins despite the cooler vintage, giving it potential for further aging.

It was another reminder of why Merlot deserves renewed attention from American wine drinkers. At its best, Merlot combines generous fruit with texture and structure without becoming overwhelming. In New Jersey's climate, it can also reveal a different personality from the richer examples many consumers associate with warmer American regions. This is another MUST try.

If there is one grape particularly worth watching in New Jersey, it may be Cabernet Franc.

Working Dog calls its estate-grown 2023 Cabernet Franc its "Signature Red," and the wine offers red raspberry preserves, cherry cola, and sweet baking spices. The vintage also earned a Silver Medal at the 2025 Finger Lakes International Wine & Spirits Competition and was selected for the 2025 Terroir NJ Wine Showcase.

Cabernet Franc has a history at Working Dog. The original vineyard planting in 2001 included Cabernet Franc, and the variety subsequently became an important part of the estate. That history matters. Great wine regions often develop around discovering which grapes truly fit their climate and soils rather than simply planting whatever happens to be most fashionable. Cabernet Franc's ability to perform in cooler growing conditions has made it an increasingly interesting variety throughout parts of the eastern United States. Check out their full lineup of estate reds at workingdogwinerynj.com.

The 2023 Working Dog Cabernet Franc demonstrates why the grape continues to generate enthusiasm in New Jersey. This is another MUST try.

Our tasting concluded with Open Source Cabernet Franc, giving us the opportunity to explore another interpretation of the grape.

I learned exactly what Open Source was from Mike Samatovicz, a very knowledgeable and friendly member of the Working Dog family. Open Source is a collaborative annual winemaking project from the six winery members that make up the N.J. Wine Co-op. Each year the six wineries contribute 1,000 pounds of the year's chosen grape — this year, Cabernet Franc. The grapes are taken to a member's crush pad, the juices are divided equally, and each winemaker takes their share back to their respective winery to make their own magic happen.

Working Dog describes Open Source as an elegant, medium-bodied Cabernet Franc with aromas of sweet vanilla, baking spices, cherry cola, and tobacco. The palate moves toward black cherry, red raspberry, black currant, and roasted tomato, balanced by silky tannins and refreshing acidity.

Tasting it alongside the 2023 Cabernet Franc makes the experience particularly worthwhile because it allows Cabernet Franc itself to become the subject of the tasting. Rather than simply asking, Do I like Cabernet Franc?, you begin asking more interesting questions: How does the fruit change? How does the texture differ? What happens to the spice? How prominent are the tannins? And how does the winemaking influence the personality of the finished wine?

Those are the kinds of comparisons that turn a winery visit from simply drinking wine into genuinely learning about it.

What stood out most from our visit to Working Dog Winery wasn't necessarily one individual bottle. It was the range.

In a single tasting we moved from the less familiar Maréchal Foch to Syrah, Sangiovese, and Merlot before finishing with two expressions centered on Cabernet Franc. Each brought something different to the table. The Maréchal Foch delivered bright fruit and acidity. Syrah brought darker fruit and pepper. Sangiovese moved toward cherry, herbs, and savory flavors. Merlot offered deeper fruit and structure. And Cabernet Franc provided an intriguing finale — and perhaps the strongest connection between Working Dog's history and the future possibilities of New Jersey wine.

That's precisely why visiting local wineries matters. You can read tasting notes. You can study grape varieties. You can order bottles online. But standing at the winery and tasting several wines side by side provides something different: context. You begin to see how grape variety, vintage, climate, and winemaking come together in the glass.

The Working Dog winemaker is Jill Sanders, and we will follow up with her at a later date for a one-on-one interview.

Our September visit to Working Dog Winery reinforced something we continue to discover while exploring wine across the United States: some of the most interesting American wine experiences are happening far beyond the regions that traditionally receive the headlines.

New Jersey may not immediately come to mind when the average consumer thinks about American wine, but wineries such as Working Dog are giving wine lovers plenty of reasons to reconsider that assumption. If you're planning a visit or want to explore their current releases before you go, head to workingdogwinerynj.com.

And if you're visiting Working Dog, don't stop after trying the grapes you already recognize. Try the Maréchal Foch. Taste the Syrah. Give New Jersey Merlot a chance. And definitely spend some time with the Cabernet Franc.

Because sometimes discovering American wine means being willing to taste beyond the familiar. That's exactly what The American Vine is all about.

Working Dog Winery is located at 610 Windsor Perrineville Road, Hightstown, NJ. The tasting room is open Thursday through Sunday. For more on New Jersey wine, see our New Jersey wine guide and our visits to Laurita Winery and Fox Hollow Vineyards.