For nearly five years, former Unionville Vineyards winemaker Conor Quilty has crushed grapes and battled Tewksbury officials to bring Frank Schwab’s new winery “passion project” to harvest.
While the winery’s original proposed tasting room on a Tewksbury dirt road was controversial, its wine wasn't.
During the years Quilty and Schwab spent developing tasting room plans, Meadowbrook Winery’s reputation flourished. Its wines became some of the only New Jersey wines to be served at high-end restaurants including the Tewksbury Inn, Juniper Hill in Annandale, Ninety Acres in Peapack-Gladstone, and the Red Horse by David Burke in Bernardsville.
Now the acclaimed winery has a home of its own.
Meadowbrook Winery opened its newly-built tasting room at 18 King St. just outside of Oldwick in early October, offering an intimate and highly curated experience to match the quality of its wines.
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“It’s great to see everyone that’s been watching us work on Meadowbrook Winery for the last four-and-a-half years come together and finally get to experience it in a real way,” Quilty said. “We’re full of gratitude that people have stood with us and supported us in the process and have seen the vision come to life. It’s a brand-new start.”
Tastings are held noon to 6 p.m. by reservation only on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays in a 900-square-foot tasting space with just 34 seats. The tasting room will be open for the season until the weekend before Christmas, when it will shut down until March.
With 22-foot ceilings, minimal decor and glass sliding doors that overlook a dozen acres of grapes, Meadowbrook Winery’s tasting room feels more like a bright and airy enclave in the center of vineyards than a typical tasting room. It’s highlighted with white oak and Scandinavian furniture as well as a blue quartzite bar.
“It’s this all-encompassing view that you don’t have access to when you’re on the road or on any other public property,” Quilty said. “By putting the tasting room where we did, we opened up access to what I think is one of the most beautiful parts of Hunterdon County. And because of that, we didn’t feel like we needed a wood bar, barrel tables and brown furniture. Our only real decoration is our glassware.”
Guests can choose from the 30-45 minute five-wine seasonal tasting for $40 at the bar, or the 60-90 minute $75 seven-wine premium tasting at a table. Wines are served in wine glasses and guests are guided through each pour by Quilty or other knowledgeable team members.
“At a lot of places, you’re walking up to a tasting bar and they’re pouring wines one by one while you read from a sheet of paper,” Quilty said. “I think both concepts deserve to exist, but that’s just not the experience that we’re offering. We are taking the time to make sure you have elements like table settings and water service and we want you to feel that.”
The premium tasting includes cheese from Valley Shepherd Creamery in Long Valley; local cured meat from Salumeria Biellese in Hackensack; fresh daily focaccia from Juniper Hill; and olives marinated in olive oil made on boutique U.S. farms.
“We’re finding the best we can in our own backyards,” Quilty said. “It begs the question to people – if they are going to drink local wine here, why would they eat from a global food menu?”
The tasting room opens onto a 1,500-square-foot patio with about 25 seats where walk-ins are welcome on a first-come, first-serve basis for wines by the glass.
Unlike other more casual wineries nearby, Meadowbrook Winery does not permit people under age 21 or pets, except for certified service animals. It wasn’t a choice that was made lightly, Quilty said.
“I have don’t have anything for a 10-year-old and on top of that, I don’t have the means to provide anything in this small space,” Quilty said. “There’s no music or board games. I have seltzer water on tap, but that’s the extent right now of what we offer outside of wine. We’re not anti-pet or anti-children, but the space just isn’t that conducive to having a lot of dogs and children.”
Meadowbrook Winery grows five grape varieties that consistently grow well in New Jersey’s difficult growing climate, so poor bottles never have to go on a shelf. At least 80% of the winery’s grapes are estate-grown – although this harvest, they were 100% estate-grown – and they’re all grown in New Jersey.
Meadowbrook makes just 10 wines in effort to “pick a few things and do them well and to the best of our abilities,” Quilty said.
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Grapes are managed and picked by hand. The vineyards are strategically placed so “we’re getting a lot of sun, wind, etc. on the fruit so it’s staying clean and we don’t have to compromise our values in intervention,” Quilty explained.
Once the grapes are in the cellar, they’re managed with as little intervention as possible while still keeping them clean. Then they’re made into food-driven wines that are acid-driven, elegant, and light on their feet in styles that are reflective of the land and climate.
"It boils down to the respect we have for the land around us and the respect we have for the community," Quilty said. "This is a quiet, sleepy bucolic space that’s absolutely beautiful and has a ton to offer people but it’s also a small town with a lot of people who have lived here for generations. We worked hard to create this space in a way that would be absolutely respectful of that."
Go: 18 King St. in the Oldwick section of Tewksbury; meadowbrookwinery.com.
Contact: [email protected]
Jenna Intersimone has been a staff member at the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey since 2014, although she's a lifetime Jersey girl who considers herself an expert in everything from the Jersey Shore to the Garden State's buzzing downtowns. To get unlimited access to her stories about food, drink and fun, please subscribe or activate your digital account today. You can also follow her on Instagram at @seejennaeat and on Twitter at @JIntersimone.