Terhune Orchards Wins Five Medals at New Jersey Wine Competition

Pam Mount (l) and daughter Tannwen Mount (r) display some of Terhune Orchards' award winning wines.

Terhune Orchards Vineyard and Winery’s Just Peachy wine has been awarded a silver medal at the New Jersey Wine Competition, and four other Terhune Orchards wines were honored with bronze awards.

“We’re so pleased that our wine is being well received as a new winery to the New Jersey community,” Tannwen Mount said of the awards. “This is our second bottling of our fruit wines. Our apple wine is made from our own apple cider. We’re glad everyone is enjoying it, including the judges. With our additional planting of vines this spring, we look forward to producing more varieties of unique wines from right here at our farm.”

More than 260 wines were contenders for the 2012 New Jersey Wine Competition. Conducted annually since 1986, the competition is sponsored by the Garden State Wine Growers Association and the Rutgers University Cooperative Extension under the supervision of Rutgers University wine expert Gary Pavlis. Judges utilized in the NJ Wine Competition are certified wine judges, sommeliers, wine buyers, wine educators, and wine retailers. Many have been judging in this competition for more than 20 years, Pavlis said.

“The overall quality of the wines was exceptional this year,” Pavlis said.

Medals will be awarded to the winners this Saturday in a special awards ceremony at 2 p.m. at the Garden State Wine Growers Association’s Blues & Jazz Festival at Natirar Park in Peapack-Gladstone, which is located in Somerset County.

Terhune Orchards is one of the few fruit and vegetable farms in the Garden State with a winery and tasting room. The winery, which opened in 2010, offers ten varieties of wine. Terhune Orchards’ Vidal Blanc was a bronze medal winner in the 2010 New Jersey State Wine Competition.

The tasting room at the farm is open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. Visitors can taste five wines for $5 ($8 with the glass). Wines can also be purchased in the farm store. The farm is located at 330 Cold Soil Road in Lawrence.