Cava Winery and Vineyard

Cava Winery and Vineyard is located in Hamburg, in the Northwest section of the state. Cava boasts an attractive indoor and outdoor setting. Indoors, you can experience an upscale warm environment, ideal for partaking in their flight style tastings and their Friday Bistro Style menu. Outdoors, you have a great view of their vineyard and a perfect place to enjoy their live entertainment. It is fitting that they chose the name “Cava” for their winery, with a nod to the history of mining in this part of New Jersey. However, Cava is also a place where wine is sometimes stored in Europe (utilizing caves to keep wines away from light and at safe temperatures).

Cava offers three different labels for their wines: Vini di Riccio, Cecci Bella, and Skylands. White wines with the Vini di Riccio Label are Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio and Moscato (a light sweet wine). Their reds carrying this label include Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Sangiovese.

Their Cecci Bella Label includes Strawberry Fruit Wine, Blackberry Fruit Wine, Pomegranate Wild Berry Fruit Wine, Blueberry Fruit Wine, Acai Raspberry Fruit Wine, Peach Fruit Wine, Red Sangria and White Sangria. Still within the sweet/fruit wine, but with the Skylands Label Cava offers Skylands Apple Pie and Skylands Peach Cobbler.

Cava won a Bronze Medal for their Cava Magnesio White at the 2009 San Francisco Chronicle Wine Competition and a Bronze Medal at the 2009 Florida State Fair International Wine and Grape Juice Competition. The winemaker, Anthony Riccio, is also the CEO and President of Cava. An army veteran, Anthony spent much of his youth working on a farm in Morris County. Now he gets to truly enjoy the fruits of his labor at Cava (and share his passion with his patrons).

The best buy here was their Vino Della Tavola. It’s dry, refreshing and very inexpensive. Produced in a 1.5 liter bottle (one of the few in the state to do this) at a very reasonable $16 per bottle! But don’t ignore their reds. We enjoyed a good Cabernet Sauvignon with our small plate appetizers (also quite good).

The winery is open on weekends (from 12 p.m. – 6 p.m. on Friday and Sunday and 12 p.m. – 8 p.m. on Saturday). They do a lot of private events so check their website before you go. Wine tastings are done by the flight. You can choose from seven different flights, with four samples of their wine in each flight. Flights are priced at $6 to $8. The tastings are offered either in their main room or indoor bar. Weather permitting, they are also offered on their patio. They have snacks like small pizzas and antipasto to complement your wine choices. My personal favorite flight was Flight 3 (Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Sangiovese Blend).

Tried a New Jersey wine lately? Visited a NJ winery recently? Share your experience here.

Cheers!