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I began at The Inquirer long ago covering the Pinelands, so I regard South Jersey's berry wines with both nostalgia and trepidation.
Nostalgia, because I've seen few things more gorgeous than a flooded cranberry bog in fall harvest, its berry-covered waters glistening like a giant crimson mirror. Trepidation, because I all too vividly recall the tastebud trauma of my first sip of blueberry "champagne" at one of the wineries nearby. It was essentially grape rotgut injected with cloying berry syrup.
It was my last sip of Jersey fruit wine - until Hammonton's Tomasello recently broke the spell with some bottles of surprising quality. Each is made with 100 percent of the fruit on the label, with a well-balanced intensity of true fruit ripeness. The blueberry is still on the sweeter side - like drinking cobbler from a bottle. But I loved the tart pucker of the cranberry, a vividly perfumed but sweet-and-sour elixir that will snap your Thanksgiving taste buds to attention. It's intense to drink solo. So mix it into a Cosmo, or better yet, with an inexpensive sparkler for a royal take on a classic I call a Jersey Bog Kir.
- Craig LaBan
Tomasello Cranberry Wine available in Pennsylvania for $9.99 a 500ml bottle.
