Mike Beneduce, Jr. doesn’t just want to make wine that sells. He wants to make great wine, even if that means experimenting with varieties that many people are unfamiliar with.
At Beneduce Vineyards in Pittstown in Hunterdon County, he's having a lot of success with Blaufrankisch, an Austrian grape that creates beautiful blue/black, food-friendly wine. With Blaufrankisch, he’s making a great wine, and the wine sells, in fact it sells out every vintage.
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Beneduce didn’t simply take a chance with Blaufrankisch, though. He did his research. He looked at scientific data on climate and soil going back a hundred years for the winery’s specific site and found it’s almost identical to Burgenland, Austria. So, he flew to Austria and spent two weeks in the region talking to growers and tasting wine.
He found himself drawn to Blaufrankisch, a wine that’s king in Austria. There are 90-100 year old Blaufrankisch vines in Burgenland making high-quality, well-respected wines.
Not only is the grape well-suited for Beneduce Vineyard’s Burgenland-like terroir, the wine suits Mike Beneduce’s taste. It’s acidic and pairs well with food. So in 2009, he planted the first block of Blaufrankisch in his vineyards, and there are now 4.5 acres of it. Beneduce believes it’s the largest planting of Blaufrankisch on the East Coast, perhaps even the country.
That decision eight years ago was a smart one. Millennials – who now drink nearly half the wine in the United States – are completely open to new grape varieties.
“The millennial mindset is, ‘Let me try whatever is the best,’ ” said Beneduce. That means they don’t mind trying things they’ve never heard of.
I sat down with Beneduce to try the 2014 Blue 2 made from 100 percent Blaufrankisch and the 2016 Row’s End, a rosé made from 95 percent Blaufrankisch with a little Cabernet Franc thrown in. The grapes for both of these wines are all estate grown.
Blue2 is a very dark wine, getting its color from the blue-black thick skins the grapes have. Those thick skins allow it to be one of the last varieties to be harvested so it has time to concentrate a lot of flavor in the grapes. It’s aged in oak for 22 months, and stays in the bottle for about another year before it’s released.
The wine is intensely aromatic. Its aroma of blueberries and leather are enticing, and its plum, mulberry and spice flavors, along with a good amount of tannins and nice acidity, make it a great food wine.
“We were looking for a grape with the highest potential. I think we found that it in Blaufrankisch,” Beneduce said. He sees it as the winery’s signature grape and thinks it could put the region on the global wine map.
It works well as a dry rosé, too, and it’s a rosé that’s suited for drinking all year long.
“This wine sells really well,” said Beneduce.
Row’s End is a little wild tasting, with flavors of wild strawberries, watermelon and flowers. It’s earthier than many rosés I’ve had, and I really like that.
If you want to try either of the Blaufrankisch wines from Beneduce Vineyards, you’ll have to head to the winery where it’s sold, and be quick about it. The 2014 Blue 2 was just released, and it usually sells out within two or three months.
You can also get Blaufrankisch further down south at Bellview Winery in Landisville. It’s the main grape in the winery’s Arcturus, a blend of 77 percent 2013 Blaufrankisch and 23 percent 2014 Cabernet Franc.
A few years ago a polar vortex destroyed some of Bellview’s Blaufrankisch vines, so Bellview needed to blend the wine for a time. They replanted, and a 2014 single variety vintage will be released next winter.
“Blaufrankisch really produces a beautiful wine,” said Jim Quarella, owner of Bellview. “It has soft tannins and a lot of structure to it.”
Other wineries in New Jersey that are bottling Blaufrankisch are Mount Salem Vineyards in Pittstown and Tomasello Winery in Hammonton.
If you’ve been noticing Blaufrankisch when you’ve visited wineries or attended festivals but have been hesitant to try it because it’s unfamiliar, it’s time to embrace the unfamiliar. New Jersey winemakers are making this Austrian grape their own.
Robin Shreeves is a Level 3 Certified Sommelier and the founder of wineandwonder.com. She's the food and drinks writer for the environmental news site Mother Nature Network and a frequent contributor to Edible Jersey Magazine. She's also the co-author of “The One Year Women in Christian History’’ (Tyndale, 2014).
