New Jersey wineries 'waiting for the ax to fall'

Local winemakers have been facing uncertainty about the future of their vineyards since December, when a federal court of appeals ruled that it was unconstitutional to allow in-state wineries to sell directly to retailers and in tasting rooms while requiring others to go through wholesalers.

Since then, state lawmakers have been unable to pass a bill that would protect these businesses, an important part of New Jersey agriculture.

Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney backed a bill that would allow state wineries to keep their tasting rooms open and ship their products directly to consumers’ homes. But Assembly Majority Leader Joseph Cryan — though he supports the tasting room business — wants to require wineries to work through distributors.

The bill was not passed by the time lawmakers departed for their summer recess last week — an issue that’s making most vineyard owners uncomfortable, if not downright angry.

“I think all the New Jersey wineries are in exactly the same spot, waiting for the ax to fall,” said Scott Donnini, owner of Auburn Road Vineyards in Pilesgrove Township. “In our tasting room, we have dinners every Friday night, dinner and music on Saturdays and a variety of other events. If we were forced to close that, we’d be done, finished, out of business.”

Unlike owners of wineries who started as farmers and converted to winemaking for the “cash crop,” Donnini and his wife were both Philadelphia lawyers who decided to buy a piece of open land and turn it into a vineyard.

“Senator Sweeney’s bill would save our wineries, but the point is that something needs to be accomplished. We need these politicians to get their act together fast,” said Donnini.

“We are a very minor political issue in the sense that no one will gain or lose a vote because of the wineries,” he added. “We’re not a party to the litigation which is a travesty of justice. We’ve been looking for a legislative solution, but for eight months we’ve been jerked around mercilessly. We don’t have the money, we’re not getting support and that’s putting us in a desperate situation.”

Following the original court decision, Donnini said, owners of the state’s wineries were told by the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control that vineyards were facing extinction.

“The sad part is, if that happens, I guess I could go back to practicing law,” said Donnini. “But those guys who really bet the farm in terms of converting to winemaking as a way to save themselves are in danger of losing everything, and that’s appalling. If the Legislature wants to pave the entire state, we need to know that.”

Customers of his winery have been voicing a lot of concern about the issue and have been offering their support, said Donnini. At Cedarvale Winery in Logan Township, owner Marsha Gaventa said consumers seem to be the industry’s most effective voice.

“We’re all, as a group, trying to get the word out to the consumers, suggesting that they contact their representatives and say they want us to stay open,” said Gaventa. 

“We were given our license three years ago to have a tasting room,” she explained. “Doing away with those tasting rooms will financially cripple a lot of people. If the ruling makes us shut down our tasting rooms, we can’t do anything here. We can’t have fundraisers or private parties. It would majorly affect us.”

Gaventa explained that profits diminish when any product must be sold through a wholesaler.

“You don’t get as much for the product, which makes it hard to keep going. We’re a small farm winery,” she said. “My husband is a fourth-generation farmer, and we want to keep farming. We have five acres of grapes.”

Gaventa added that she, her husband Ed, and all of the other vineyard owners she knows are trying to continue their day-to-day operations under the shadow of uncertainty.

“Part of the charm of the wine industry is the customer’s ability to go into a tasting room and talk to the winemakers,” said Gaventa. “We just want to keep our tasting room open — that’s our main priority.”

Just as it’s becoming harder and harder to make a living in farming, Gaventa observed, the wine industry in New Jersey is growing. 

“It has become a nice agritourism industry for the state,” she said.

Jerome Frecon, county agricultural agent for the Rutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station Cooperative Extension of Gloucester County, agreed that the wine industry has been very important to the state’s agriculture.

“It’s helped us to preserve open space and farmland. If these wineries don’t have the advantage of retailing their wine, it will hurt us in maintaining viable agriculture and open space programs,” said Frecon. “Vineyards are one of the bright spots of agriculture. It has been a growth industry.”

The Gaventa family and area winemakers have contacted senators, Assembly members, freeholders and other officials to garner political support for the state’s wine industry. Gaventa said most winemakers seem to be in favor of Sweeney’s proposed bill.

“We want to keep farming, and working with wholesalers takes away from the farm and the experience,” said Gaventa. “New Jersey is ranked seventh in wine production, but because of this ruling there are 15 new wineries waiting to open that can’t.”

Of those 15 potential wineries being held at a standstill, two — Villari Vineyards in Washington Township and Summit City Farms in Glassboro — are in Gloucester County and one, Salem Oak Vineyards, is in Salem County.

“The wineries that are pending completion of the licensing process are still pending the court ruling,” said Paul Loriquet, spokesman for the state Attorney General’s Office. “The Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control will comply with that ruling and won’t issue permits until otherwise directed by the court.”

Jill Sanders, a vineyardist at Heritage Vineyards in Harrison Township, said the sense of being “in limbo” is uncomfortable. The wineries need more people to stand behind them, she said.

“We have information for our consumers about what’s been going on, we have petitions for them to sign. We have no idea what’s going to happen, but we hope the more people we have standing behind us and contacting their senators and assemblymen, the better off we’ll be,” said Sanders. “If we were to get rid of our tasting rooms, we’d be in trouble. Chances are some of our more premium dry wines wouldn’t be as desirable in liquor stores, and we’d have to change our style here to produce more fruit and sweet wines.”

Sanders said the issue of shipping has come up as well.

“People who come here on vacation don’t understand why we can’t send our products to them,” she said.

Sanders said she’s been told the bill, as it stands, will expire in January 2012 unless it’s passed before then. She said she, and others in the wine industry, hope the bill is addressed as soon as the lawmakers return from their recess.

“I have seen numerous farms across the state save themselves by becoming wineries, altering what they grow to support the business,” said Sanders. “The New Jersey Wine Trail creates business in and around communities and contributes to tourism and the state’s identity. Let’s keep New Jersey the Garden State.”