About Sylvin Farms Winery
Sylvin Farms Winery is Frank Salek's long argument that southern New Jersey can ripen classic European wine grapes. He put the first vines in the sandy ground at 24 North Vienna Avenue in 1977, in the Germania section outside Egg Harbor City, and opened to the public in 1985. The name folds together his wife Sylvia and the word sylvan, for the woods around the farm. Roughly eleven acres are planted and production has run near a thousand cases a year, small enough that the winery sold largely on site and by subscription.
The point of difference is purism. Salek planted vinifera and only vinifera, better than twenty varieties of it, running from Barbera, Dolcetto, Nebbiolo, Sangiovese and Corvina through Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Syrah and Zinfandel to Chardonnay and Riesling. It has been the only New Jersey winery growing Corvina and Pinot Blanc. Tastings were offered by appointment rather than on walk-in hours, which suited a farm winery of this scale, and the property sits inside the Outer Coastal Plain AVA, whose free-draining sandy soils Salek argued for long before the appellation existed.
Plan this one very carefully. Current visitor status is genuinely uncertain: at least one winery directory now flags the business as permanently closed, and the domain that once carried the winery's site has been taken over by unrelated content, though reference sources still describe it as an operating family winery. The farm is a short drive from Egg Harbor City and about half an hour from Atlantic City, with other Outer Coastal Plain producers nearby. Call the winery on (609) 965-1548 to confirm that it is open and to arrange an appointment before you drive out.
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