Cream Ridge, NJ – The Garden State Wine Growers Association (GSWGA) is launching the New Jersey Wines Culinary Series bringing leading New Jersey chefs and winemakers together, to create wine tasting and wine pairing events at leading restaurants and other locales throughout the state, introducing a whole new audience to New Jersey’s wine industry.
The first event will be Thursday, April 25 at Drew’s Bayshore Bistro in Keyport teaming Chef Drew Araneo with Mark Carduner, co-owner and winemaker at Working Dog Winery in East Windsor. The second event will be held May 23 when Conor Quilty, winemaker at Unionville Vineyards teams with Chef AJ Capella at A Toute Heure in Cranford. Additional events will be announced shortly.
To develop the Culinary Series, the GSWGA is teaming with the Garden State Culinary Arts Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides a unified, comprehensive statewide support to our food ways, economy and professionals in the culinary, hospitality and beverage enterprises to develop these events.
The GSWGA received funding for the New Jersey Wines Culinary Series through a grant from the New Jersey Department of State, Division of Travel & Tourism.
“We’re excited to launch the New Jersey Wines Culinary Series which we feel will help introduce countless new individuals to our award-winning wines and winemakers and also create long-lasting relationships with the state’s finest chefs and restaurants,” said Tom Cosentino, Executive Director of the GSWGA.
“New Jersey’s culinary community is hitting the heights right now, with progressive, creative chefs mining the best farms and fishes from our own waters for exquisite, peak ingredients, and vintners cherry-picking grapes from Garden State vineyards and making a range of wines that reveal terroir and mastery of technique,” says Andy Clurfeld, veteran food critic and advocate through the Garden State Culinary Arts Foundation for New Jersey’s foodways. “There’s an elite core of professionals – winemakers and chefs, farmers and food artisans – who stand second to none, anywhere. This series of dinners, pairing Garden State wineries with Garden State chefs, showcases those talents, those wines, those foods. The fact that Drew Araneo and Mark Carduner are the headliners of the first dinner in the series is matchmaking heaven; a four-star experience.”
The inaugural New Jersey Wine Culinary Series at Drew’s Bayshore Bistro will feature two dinner seatings: 6:30 pm and 8:00 pm for 30 people at each seating. The price is $140 per person, which includes the five course dinner, wine, and gratuity. Sales tax is added separately to each order. Because of the limited seating there will be community seating at this event. Tickets can be purchased here.
Each seating will offer a five course menu with each dish paired with a different wine from Working Dog Winery. Due to the small number of seats available at each seating there will be community seating at this event.
Menu and Wine Pairings
1st:
Soft Shell Crab Po’ Boy
‘Dressed’ with Ramp Tartar Sauce, Voodoo Chips
2017 Working Dog Winery Traminette
2nd:
Seared Scallop
Lump Crab, Morrel, Asparagus Risotto
2018 Working Dog Winery Riesling
3rd:
Grilled Short Rib
Charred Eggplant, Couscous, Harissa
2016 Working Dog Cabernet Franc
4th:
Magret Duck
Foie Gras ‘Dirty Rice’. Tabasco Gastrique
2016 Working Dog Winery Syrah
Dessert:
Simple Lemon Tart
Working Dog Winery Blueberry Wine
About Drew’s Bayshore Bistro and Working Dog Winery
Drew’s Bayshore Bistro opened in 2005 by Chef Andrew Araneo in his home town of Keyport, NJ. Opening a restaurant located just blocks from where he grew up, is a dream come true for Drew. He hopes that his interpretation of Cajun and bistro cooking will be a dream comes true for you. Intimate, friendly, and focused on good cooking, the Bistro has become the region’s go-to place for great food inspired by Gulf Coast and Low Country cuisines.
The story of Working Dog Winery starts early in 2001 with a group of friends relaxing after work one day when the conversation rambled from topic to topic until it landed upon an idea . . . “wouldn’t it be great if we could plant some grapes and try making our own wine?” One thing led to another, and before they knew it, these friends were digging holes and planting vinifera, on what is now Working Dog’s vineyard.
The vineyard is located in the rolling terrain of eastern Mercer County in Central New Jersey. They started with 3 acres of Cabernet Franc and Chardonnay. The more they planted, and the more wine they made, the more they came to realize that the terroir . . . that combination of soil, climate, topography . . . is capable of producing outstanding fruit. And the idea about making wine has taken on a life of its own, quickly changing from hobby to passion to obsession. Oh yeah, and somewhere along the line, it became a business.
The GSWGA is a coalition of over 50 wineries, grape growers and vineyard owners across New Jersey, dedicated to raising the quality and awareness of the New Jersey wine industry. For more information visit: www.newjerseywines.com.
