Golf in wine country: Vineyard National at Renault Winery
This beautiful par 4 hole is framed by vineyards and requires a precise tee shot over the corner of the vines to a narrow landing area, followed by a hard dogleg left. Napa, you say? Maybe Oregon or Washington State? Anyone for southern NJ?
You’re looking at the signature 7th hole at Vineyard National in Egg Harbor Township, NJ, part of the historic Renault Winery resort complex. I recently had the chance to play the course and then sit down for a conversation with winemaker Brian Bobak to learn more about this sprawling operation and its rich heritage. The entire property was acquired last year by Accountable Equity and major investments in both golf and wine are just getting underway, so presumably the overall guest experience will only improve from here.
The Golf
Renault Winery is located a few miles off the Garden State Parkway (Exit 44), about a half hour north of Atlantic City. The golf is decidedly low key. You pull up, drop your bag near a small putting green and sign in at a very modest pro shop. My partner wrangled a senior discount and with cart our green fees were $79. Other than the putting green there are no practice facilities.
Although we picked a beautiful warm summer day, it had rained the night before and the ground was still somewhat wet, especially around the greens, many of which are raised. Almost everything hit short of the greens plugged. The greens themselves were quite slow but in fairness probably hadn't been cut.
The layout is wide open, reasonably challenging, and fun. Other than the aforementioned 7th, I liked #9 which required a blind uphill tee shot over a yawning bunker and then a tough second to a narrow, raised and well bunkered green, and the Par 3 #13, a 190 yd. shot (from the Blue tees) slightly downhill over the corner of a pond, protected on the left by another water hazard. All of it could benefit from better grooming. For big hitters, the Blacks stretch to 7200 yards, much more than yours truly can handle. I'm not an architect, but it appeared to me the "bones are there." You could imagine that investment by the new owners could make the conditioning significantly better, so I hope that's in the game plan. Perhaps because of the wet ground or the vagaries of public play, it was a slow round that took close to 4:45, too long in my book, but it is what it is on a daily fee course in the summer.
The Wines
After putting out on 18 we went straight to the onsite 1864 Restaurant to meet with Brian. It was about 3:30 on a Friday afternoon and the place was already filling up with day sippers and wedding guests. Unbeknownst to us, Renault Winery is the most popular wedding venue in the State of New Jersey, hosting on average 10 events a weekend! The restaurant is called 1864 because that's when the winery was founded, by an expat French Champagne maker fleeing the phylloxera scourge that decimated European vineyards. Louis Renault bounced from California to New Jersey and settled here because he felt the cool climate and sandy loam soils resembled Champagne, minus the chalk. His eponymous creation is now the 2nd oldest winery in the US.
It's well worth it to take a few moments and reflect on the winery's impressive history. As Renault began to experiment with phylloxera-resistant vines, he introduced rootstocks on which active plantings have been made since the 1860's. At one point the winery was the largest distributor of sparkling wine in the US. Renault pioneered planting of a hearty, disease-resistant hybrid white grape called Noah, which is still farmed on the property today. They survived Prohibition by shifting to so-called medicinal tonics and perhaps by employing one Enoch "Nucky" Johnson, the real-life character on whom the HBO series Boardwalk Empire was based. Johnny Carson was a spokesperson for the champagne in the '60's and it was served at Kennedy's inauguration. Perhaps most surprising, Renault is one of only a handful of American wineries still entitled to label their sparkling wine "Champagne." This right was secured, to the dismay of the French government, through a loophole based on the winery's longstanding use of the term. Today, Renault offers multiple whites, reds, and sparkling wines based on both vinifera and hybrid grapes, including the country's only blueberry Champagne, of which we'll have more to say later.
The noise in the high-ceilinged 1864 Restaurant was already reaching a crescendo when we sat down, alive with the unmistakable background buzz of merry revelers about to attend one of two weddings occurring simultaneously. Brian has been at the winemaking helm for three years, hired to revitalize the vines after a period of neglect as the property changed hands several times and emerged from the neglect of bankruptcy. He had previously served an apprenticeship at Rappahannock Vineyards in Virginia and will soon graduate with a degree in winemaking from UC Davis. Needless to say, he's the only one in his class at this prestigious institution making New Jersey Champagne. He’s an energetic and very enthusiastic advocate for the wine program.
The winery, like the overall property, is in the initial stages of what can only be described as a turnaround. Today, they have just 10 acres of vine under cultivation, mostly Noah. Recent plantings near the hotel (as opposed to out around the golf course) include the productive North American hybrids Chambourcin, Cayuga and Norton. Harvested grapes are pressed, inertly gassed for stability, and then trucked to Virginia, where the wines are fermented, raised, and bottled. The intent is to acquire the equipment that will one day enable on site elevage, but other than the Noah, all the other wines they sell today are based on grapes grown and bottled by their Virginia partner. I don't think this is widely advertised and it probably doesn't matter to most of their customers, but it's good to know. Brian admits that even once planned improvements are in place, they will not likely be able to keep up with the thirsty demands of various festivals and all the weddings, so they will always need to supplement their locally grown fruit.
A word or two about Noah. While its origins are somewhat mysterious, genetic analysis suggests it descends from North American grapes which give it a characteristic tropical and "foxy" aroma. Renault Winery is probably one of the world's largest producers. Brian seeks to pick it on the early side to preserve its desirable fruit characteristics and limit the more exotic elements. It's the Noah vines that frame the 7th hole. Brian would like to have a vineyard dog that could keep the ever-present deer at bay, but he'd have to make sure it wouldn't decide that golfers also pose a risk!
It was time to get down to business, so we ordered a tasting flight of five wines based on Brian's recommendation. This included their proprietary Fleur de Blanc, a blend with a percentage of the winery's own Noah grapes; a chardonnay; a red Meritage, and both the famous American Reserve and Blueberry Champagnes. Note that we paid for our own samples, so there is no bias in the comments that follow.
2020 Fleur de Blanc: a blend of Noah, with some vidal blanc and viognier from Virginia. It certainly has tropical aromas, a rich mouthfeel, and lands somewhere like a demi-sec in terms of dryness. It's interesting but a bit cloying to my taste. It would be cool to try a monovarietal Noah just to see what you'd get. 13.3% ABV
2018 Chardonnay: light, tightly wound, and fruit forward. It was my favorite wine of the flight for its varietal correctness and lack of anything distracting. 13.1% ABV
NV American Reserve Champagne: made from seyval blanc grapes, is also light, crisp, lemony, and drinkable, especially when quite cold. If it were my daughter’s wedding at Renault, well, there's a lot less appealing sparkling wine out there whatever it might be called. 12% ABV
NV Blueberry Champagne: felt a bit confected to me, which after all it is with blueberry juice injected during the dosage. Brian said it makes a killer mimosa, and I'll take his word for it. 12.5% ABV
2019 Meritage: a blend of cabernet sauvignon, petit verdot, and merlot and one of Brian's favorites. It has been well received elsewhere. No reflection on his palate or Renault, but I struggle with East Coast wines of this type except maybe for a few from the North Fork of Long Island. I found the aromas and flavors quite overpowering and couldn't get past the first sip.
Our tasting flight, with annotated tasting notes and a very respectable charcuterie plate. The pale rose colored wine is the Blueberry Champagne.
Summary
The components of a unique golf and wine experience in New Jersey are all there at Renault Winery/Vineyard National. I left feeling that Brian has a good grasp on what continuous improvement will look like for the wine program. Hopefully the team responsible for golf has a similar game plan, and Accountable Equity can raise the capital needed to make this place as special for the everyday visitor as it does for the 10 lucky couples who tie the knot there every weekend.
