(RINGOES, NJ) -- Old York Cellars Winery has announced that over 25 local musicians, comedians, restaurants, food trucks, vendors and professional food and wine writers have joined its Virtual Spring Vine to Wine Festival this Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  The winery will feature three days of music, comedy, culinary demonstrations, wine education, chocolate and cheese tastings, vineyard tours, and tours of its beehives. The festival kicks off Friday evening May 1st, with separate programming on Saturday May 2 and Sunday, May 3. 

Virtual festival guests have the opportunity to sip, shop, listen, watch and interact with New Jersey musicians, restaurants, food trucks, artisan craftspeople, a chocolatier, comedians, vendors and the winery team.  Some of the entertainment lineup includes musicians Greg Cagno, Kyle Cambell, RPG Project, Craig Rutter and Ed Wall. Culinary experiences with Kyma Greek Cuisine, Dough Artisan, The Towpath Restaurant Americana, The Beach Shack, Maddalena’s, Rosetta's Farm Spices, Tastefully Simple and Chef José Diaz of Old York Cellars Tasting Room & Kitchen in Lawrenceville. Crafting with Chirp Workshop, House of Corks, Nora Lewis Jewelry Creations and The Attico. Chocolate making with Laurie's Chocolates.  Laughter with comedians Helene Angely, Buddy Fitzpatrick, Joe Bronzi, Andrew Kennedy, Kelly Terranova and Rodney Laney. Creative vendor demonstrations and tours by Color Street and Touchstone Crystal. Tours, tasting and more with Winemaker Scott Gares, the Old York Cellars Team, and Northlandz. Pairing ideas and wonderful ways to support New Jersey small businesses with professional food and wine writers Robin Shreeves, Jenn Hall and Tara Nurin. 

The Virtual Wine Festival will be hosted on Old York Cellars Facebook and YouTube pages. Many of the festival participants will be engaging in live chats on Facebook throughout the weekend. Viewers will have the opportunity to purchase wines and Laurie’s Chocolates prior to the Festival in order to join the tastings from home.  The winery will be donating 10% of wine sales made from April 28 to May 3 to the New Jersey Pandemic Relief Fund. Viewers will also have links to support the other businesses and performers featured during the Virtual Wine Festival.

Putting together the Old York Cellars’ traditional Spring Wine Festival normally requires many months to plan, but amidst this crisis, they shifted their efforts to support their friends in the music and comedy communities, small businesses, crafters, food trucks and other restaurants that feature their wines.

The owner of the winery, David Wolin feels that, “We are happy that Old York Cellars is in a position to support and feature others who are hurting during this period. We’ve worked with many of the folks participating in the virtual festival and we hope the community will continue to rally around these small businesses and performers.”

“Our winery team is heartbroken that they cannot host the festival at the winery this year,” said Mr. Wolin,  “but public health and the well-being of our guests, Club Members, staff, vendors and neighbors is paramount. By creating a fun entertaining virtual three day wine festival we can still stay connected with all of the people who love and support the winery.”

Old York Cellars is encouraging festival guests to host their own virtual festival at home and try some of the recipes from the winery’s Facebook page, order delicious takeout/delivery from one of their featured restaurants and invite their friends to virtually join them. Guests can tag their food and virtual festival photos with the hashtag #OldYorkCellarsWineFestival and discuss their favorite wines and food.

The Virtual Wine Festival is the second unique way that the New Jersey winery has found to bring isolated people together. Last week, the award-winning winery introduced its new line of Message on a Bottle customizable labels that have slogans like, “Sending Hugs”, “Til We Meet Again,” “Thinking of You” and “We Miss You.” The Message on a Bottle labels are designed to reach out to friends and family who are isolated in their homes, while supporting those in need by donating a portion of each bottle sold to the New Jersey Pandemic Relief Fund.

The Message On A Bottle custom label program allows consumers to add their personal touch with text and photos.  Consumers can order online or by calling the winery at 908-284-9463.  The bottles can be shipped, delivered locally or picked up at the Winery in Ringoes, its Quaker Bridge Mall Tasting Room & Restaurant in Lawrence Township and at Kyma Greek Cuisine in Somerville.  All locations offer no contact pickup.

Old York Cellars’ wines are handcrafted by acclaimed winemaker Scott Gares. Scott’s wines have won numerous medals at international wine competitions.  The vineyard property boasts 28 acres of preserved farmland and beautiful acres of rolling grape vines, originally planted in 1979.