Outer Coastal Plain Vineyard Association

Minutes of June 17, 2011 meeting

The meeting was held on Bellview Winery at 6PM and called to order by Larry Coia.

Acreage Contracts: First order of business was a presentation by Larry Coia, Dan Ward & Scott Donini of a framework for grower/winery acreage contracts. This discussion centered on drafting a usable contract that used a preset price per acre for grapes and also contained pre-negotiated tasks or milestones that would be built into the contract. Acreage contracts from other states were discussed as well as a prior presentation from Mark Chien which was used to describe the components of these types of contracts. The long discussion on this topic that took place was lively and useful. Scott Donini is working on drafting a proposed form of contract for the other members to consider and use and will distribute that form when it is finished.

Vineyard Survey: Dan Ward presented a slide presentation on the results of the vineyard survey he conducted recently. Dan explained that he sent out questionnaires to approximately 105 addresses and got a 58% response rate. The results were surprising in some respects in that there was a wider variety of grapes being grown in the state than previously known and that certain varieties were more prevalent than anticipated. The total acreage was also a bit unclear due to the fact that not all addressees responded and some did not supply acreage information. Nevertheless the results were eye opening and potentially very useful for a variety of reasons. Dan will make some of the results available to the members of the Association.

Dan Ward also mentioned that Jack Rabin is looking for photos of vineyard/winery events to use in the promotion of a website for agri-turism in New Jersey. Also he mentioned that the results of the Association’s project to map the state has been a useful tool for interaction with legislators who are using the results to promote legislation favoring grape growing and wineries.

Proprietary Wine Blend: Don Romanini and Larry Coia presented information on the items in the most recent grant proposal that the Association has submitted to promote New Jersey and OCP grapes and wines and create a “brand” for OCP wines. The proposal has two components. The first is the determination of a proprietary wine blend that would be trademarked by the Association and licensed to wineries in the OCP at little or no cost. The Association needs to determine a name and the components of the proposed blend. Also it was agreed that quality control measures of some sort should be employed by the Association before allowing the blend name to be used by wineries. A sub- committee will be formed to proceed with this idea in advance of the grant.

Potential New Italian Varities: The second component to the grant proposal was to engage the Italian viticulture experts who took part in our recent symposium to obtain some existing varieties and/or crosses made in Italy to potentially be promoted as a signature grape variety for the OCP. These varieties are little known in the US and could provide a cultivar that could be grown in the OCP and marketed as unique to the area. Larry Coia and some other members of the Association have already tasted some examples of some of these and were impressed with the quality and characteristics. Larry will be traveling to Italy this month to discuss the proposal with the Italians at the Foundation Edmund Mach in Trento where these varieties have been grown and tested. It is hoped that we will be able to import a number of these vines, have them go through quarantine and then begin growing test plots in various vineyards in the OCP to determine cultural suitability and wine making potential.

The meeting was adjourned at about 9PM.