Mark and Lauren Hernandez and Brendan Boyle are co-owners of Autumn Lake Winery and established the vineyards in 2012. The goal was a "singular ambition of creating wines of superior quality from grapes grown on our own cultivation. Our clay and gravel laced soils provide the ultimate conditions for wine grapes."
Autumn Lake Winery on West Malaga Road was approved for a 5,000-square-foot tasting room and had produced more than 1,000 bottles in July of 2016, Brendan Boyle told the Philadephia Inquirer last year. The winery produces the following wines: Pinot Gris, Sauvignon Blanc, Albarino, Viognier, Blaufrankisch, and Chambourcin. It's a small and new winery in New Jersey.
I met them at the Eastern Winery Exposition 2017 in Syracuse. I tasted two of their wines both of which were very good!
Autumn Lake Albarino Outer Coastal Plain 2015 was a lovely white wine, with a huge tropical fruit and floral notes. A big, big nose, with big tropical fruit up front but the wine finishes dry and brilliantly. A lovely Albarino.
Autumn Lake Chambourcin Outer Coastal Plain 2015 was another lovely surprise. A big, dark red wine, with notes of dark cherry, stewed dark berries, cassis, dark cocoa, plum, and spice. This is a big deep dry red win, with a big dose of oak. Lots of complexity. A very, very good Chambourcin. Goes right to the leading pack of Chambourcins on the east coast! Fantastic!
So far, tiny Autumn Lake impresses!