Rutgers Professor Champions New Jersey Wine Industry Through TV Show and Advocacy

Angus Gillespie teaches American Studies at Rutgers. He’s been championing New Jersey wines on his local cable program. The state has 60 licensed wineries, and this folklore expert wants people to know about them. Old Ways in New Jersey airs on East Brunswick Television and streams on YouTube, where Gillespie interviews winery owners and agricultural specialists who work with grapes.

Years back, Gillespie and his wife, Rowena, stumbled upon a tourism brochure while walking through Lambertville. They drove to Angelico Winery. They picked up a New Jersey Wine Passport and started visiting vineyards across the state.

“I think it’s safe to say that many New Jerseyans have no idea there’s 60 wineries in New Jersey,” said Gillespie, according to Rutgers.edu.

Back in 1981, the New Jersey Farm Winery Act changed everything. Before that law passed, the state had fewer than 10 wineries operating under tight restrictions. Now, licensed facilities churn out around 2 million gallons each year. Vineyards across the state grow more than 80 grape varieties on over 1,500 acres. Wine tourism pulls in $92.5 million per year, according to data from the Garden State Wine Growers Association.

Gillespie points to Gary Pavlis and Daniel Ward as two agricultural agents at Rutgers who’ve propped up the sector. “They’re the real people that have a connection to the New Jersey wineries because they are in touch with the winemakers whenever the winemakers have a problem with deer, or birds, or insects, or diseases, or drainage,” said Gillespie.

Pavlis works as an agricultural agent at Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Atlantic County. In 1984, he launched Grape Expectations, an annual seminar covering viticulture, enology, and marketing. Prospective winery owners come to him with questions about startup costs, which grape varieties thrive here, where to plant, and how to get licensed.

“The wine industry is keeping the garden in the Garden State,” said Pavlis. Since 2017, over 22,000 acres of farmland have disappeared as traditional produce operations have shrunk.

Ward runs the New Jersey Center for Wine Research and Education. “The first thing to know is your market,” said Ward. “You have to be able to sell it at the time you need, at the price you need.”

Beverly Tepper teaches in the Department of Food Science. She started a Grape and Wine Science Certificate program at Rutgers and owns a winery herself. Tepper says winemakers “have come very far” in raising the quality of their vintages.

Gillespie has toured a dozen wineries so far. He arranges tastings to interview winemakers while Rowena snaps photos. His latest episode features Rebel Sheep Wine Company in Chester.

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