2004 NJ Wine Tasting: Page 2

The spirit that is Frenchtown NJ reached it's grandest expression for the 2004 festival. The art and culture that permeates this little NJ village is what makes us love living here, and what draws people back to visit us over and over again.

Shown in this photo is a collection of of art glass, contemporary ceramic art and stained glass from an art gallery on Bridge Street.

The event was hosted by the Frenchtown NJ Business and Professional Association and run by our local wine shop, The Wine Hut, which is one of the best wine shops in the area, with incredibly knowledgable staff, and an incredible selection of wines.

The Wine Hut works brought together wine merchants from across the region and the nation to showcase their wines at this event.

Local merchants held wine and or beer tastings in their stores, and visitors took a tour of town to all the participating stores and businesses, while registering for prizes in each location.

NJ Celebration of Art + Wine

   
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One of the wine tasting stations this year was at Alchemy Artwear and Gallery. Shown in this photo is a display outside the store complete with a life size Egyptian Sarcophagus contributed by Selah Parfums Jerusalem. Lotus Payer of Erwinna from Selah, and a happy wine taster were proud models for this shot.

One of Frenchtown's newest merchants hosted a wine tasting station for the 2004 festival. Shown in this photo is a charming little display from the owners It features a Wine and Dog theme.

An incredible large Italian Oil on Canvas by Marcantonio Franceschini circa 1648-1729, was one of the highlights of the current offerings at Revelations Sacred Antiquities in what we call the Cathedral Gallery at 43A Bridge St between Sassafras and Seasons Home and Garden.

Owner Donna Miller was really the workhorse behind this incredibly successful event, and was happy to bring the event back to town, as she was involved in the original Frenchtown Wine Festival years ago. It was her hope to turn the festival into a wine event for the whole state of New Jersey featuring NJ wines, and other wines from all over the world.

Widow McCrea House was the scene of one of the most elegant wine tasting stations on the tour. This charming Victorian Bed and Breakfast hosted an open house for the weekend, and astounded visitors with it's period antiques and cozy luxurious rooms.


The Widow McCrea House is located on Kingwood Avenue and provided refreshing brisk walk for all the travelers on the wine tour.

Shown in this photo is, Tod Eby, one of the local wine distributors for The Wine Hut at the Race Street Cafe, that hosted one of the wine tasting stations in it's private upstairs dining room.


Race Street is located at the spiritual center of town at the curve where Race Street becomes Bridge Street. The cafe specializes in upscale gourmet food in a charming, intimate cafe setting.

A large group of enthusiastic wine tasters were found at Cathy Smith Designs Doll Maker Studio. The wine merchant at Cathy's, Jose Bargo, was representing a line of wines from Spain that included an Albarino Granbazan "Ambar", a Mas De Bazan Crianza, and a Vall Por Crianza.


Cathy Smith and all the businesses in the lower suites of the Gem Building were glad to be back in business after the flood that Hurricane Ivan brought to Frenchtown. All of these businesses had to move out their entire inventory as the flood was projected originally to be worse than the flood of 1955, which would have completely engulfed all the basement stores.

Euphoria Studio on Trenton Avenue was proud to show off their new location on Trenton Avenue in the old mill building for the Wine and Art Festival.


This building has one of the richest histories of any building in Frenchtown and has seen such businesses as Delaware Trading Company and Alba Design as it's former residents. Euphoria is perfect for the building's gigantic space, as it allowed them to expand their spa facilities, and their hair salon.

The Frame Carriage on Front Street was full of fine wine and fine art for the festival. Owner Kristine Keating hosted an exhibition of her own dark and foreboding but spirit filled landscape abstract oil paintings.


The Frame Carriage is much more than a custom framing shop. Kristine runs monthly exhibitions from local artists and host an opening each month for the shows. After the weekend long festival, Kristine reported that she had made lots of new friends and new customers for her artwork and her framing business.

A juried exhibition of the New Jersey chapter of the American Artist Professional League was held at Louisa Melrose Gallery to coincide with the festival. On exhibit was an incredible selection of landscapes, portraits and still lifes.

The gallery was so packed on Saturday that is was virtually impossible to take photos of the show.

A Jazz Trio playing on the porch at The Studio. The event this year was full of an positive energy of life and goodwill that I have never seen before in this little town. It was those little surprises like this one supplied by the Studio that contributed to that joie de vivre. This local trio was excellent and started my day out just right.

The Studio offers everything for the home in contemporary and updated traditional style including leather, upholstered, and slip-covered furniture, tables and decorative accessories, gourmet foods, gifts, and more in their large Frenchtown store.

A connoisseur savors the bouquet of a fine wine at Seasons Home and Garden on Bridge Street on the back patio. The wine tasting was run by The Wine Hut that is located half way between Frenchtown and Milford. There were a total of 15 Wine and Beer Tasting Stations located throughout Frenchtown in local stores, restaurants, art galleries and bed and breakfast inns.

Seasons was all decked out for the occasion with an incredible selection of fall and Christmas decorations.

A large group of wine enthusiasts tasting wines at Sassafras Cards, Gifts and Home on Bridge Street. The wine merchants worked exceptionally hard for this two day event in explaining the special qualities of their featured wines.

Sassafras was highlighting their new color scheme and home decor section of the store in addition to the cards and gifts that they are so well known for.

Hudson United Bank was the scene of the passport booth for the festival, the ticket booth for the film festival, and the scene of live entertainment on both days. In this photo, two members of River Union Stage entertaining the crowd with an Abbot and Costello "Who's on First" skit in English and French.


River Union Stage, along a local art gallery were the sponsors of the Film Festival.

Shown in this photo are Amanda Grime from The Ship Inn Restaurant and Brewery, Michael Cain and Liz Peterson from Holland Township NJ. Liz and Michael were sampling one of the in-house brews from the The Ship Inn Restaurant and Brewery. The Ship Inn, of Milford NJ was set up at Thistle on Bridge Street.


Thistle is now setup in their new larger location next door to their old store. The new location carries an expanded selection of candles, home furnishings and seasonal decorations.

Laura of River Union Stage greets us as we enter the River Moon Film Festival at an art gallery on Harrison Street.


Frenchtown's first film festival was held in the upstairs gallery, and at the Frenchtown Elementary School.

To see more photos from the film festival visit:
First Annual River Moon Film Festival Photo-Documentary

   
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