Wonderful Weekend at Ninth Annual Jersey Shore Wine Festival

It was a weekend of wine, warm weather, and song last month at FirstEnergy Park in Lakewood, NJ, home of the Lakewood BlueClaws baseball team, as the annual Jersey Shore Wine Festival welcomed guests to a wonderful early summer celebration.

The Ninth Annual Jersey Shore Wine Festival took place on June 1 and 2 under sunny skies and gentle breezes – a welcome change from harsher weather conditions that have sometimes challenged other outdoor events. Before the gates opened at noon each day, there was a long line of ticketholders eagerly waiting to enter. Many of them carried lawn chairs and blankets, ready to set up spots of their own inside the festival grounds where they could sit back, feast upon tasty offerings being served up by the food trucks, listen to the live music, and relax with family and friends.

Upon entering, each tasting participant was given a complimentary wine glass from which to sip and later save, plus a sheet of the wineries in attendance and the labels they each had on hand. Making the rounds, guests could then mark their favorites so as to remember which bottles they may want to purchase and bring home.

The 2019 festival featured more than 100 wines from eight popular Garden State wineries, including Auburn Road Vineyards and Winery, Cedar Rose Winery, DiMatteo Vineyards, Four Sisters Winery, Plagido’s Winery, Valenzano Winery, Villari Vineyards, and Wagonhouse Winery. Throughout the day, visitors crowded around the tents for each of them, seizing the opportunity to sample an astounding assortment of award-winning wines.

Along with a selection of the perhaps more traditional chardonnay and cabernet, sangria and sauvignon blanc, or merlot and Malbec varieties, there were creatively delicious options such as DiMatteo Vineyards’ Chocolate Raz, Valenzano’s limited Batch No. 3 Bourbon Apple, Wagonhouse Winery’s Nutty Quaker (with hints of chocolate, coffee, and coconut), tasty sangrias and ports, and countless fruits wines from apple, cranberry, blueberry, peach, plum, and raspberry, to name just a few. Whether one’s palate preferred dry or sweet, there was something for everyone to enjoy.

In addition to the wineries, there were rows of tents with crafters and vendors onsite, as well, plus performances by the Crabdaddy Band and guitarist Astronaut Jones.

All of the net proceeds from the Jersey Shore Wine Festival benefit Sylvia’s Children, a Holmdel-based non-profit organization that has been working for more than 15 years to improve the living conditions for more than 1,000 children – 25% of whom are orphans – in the village of Mbiriizi in Uganda, Africa.

For updates on future Jersey Shore Wine Festival events, visit www.jerseyshorewinefestival.com. For information about Sylvia’s Children, go to www.sylviaschildren.org.