Kegs, Corks & Spirits: Winery, Brewery & Distillery Tour of the Shore

Looking for a day away from sunshine and sandy beaches? Or perhaps a night out with friends or a significant other? Maybe you’re looking for something to do on a gray day at the shore? We’ve got the perfect answer: experience Cape May County’s local hops, grapes and spirits! The Jersey Cape’s local breweries, wineries and distilleries each have their own unique flare, making for a one-of-a-kind experience at each. Tour the facilities and talk to the experts to learn how beer, wine and spirits are made. Send your palate on a journey with tastings, and bring your favorite flavor home in a growler or bottle!

Ignite the party at Bucket Brigade Brewery! Experience Cape May County’s hottest brews in a spacious yet cozy tasting room, featuring firehouse accents such as helmets and buckets. With a variety of ales, pilsners and lagers, all beers are brewed with one thing in mind: extinguishing your thirst. Before enticing your palate with Bucket Brigade’s unique flavors, be sure to take the tour and learn all about the brewing process.

Experience handcrafted spirits from the Cape at Cape May Distillery. Our area’s first distillery, Cape May Distillery’s hands-on process uses locally grown raw ingredients sourced in the state of New Jersey. Learn all about the distilling process during a tour of the facility, then take a seat at the bar and taste a signature cocktail that brings out the best of Cape May Distillery’s handcrafted spirits.

Cape May Winery & Vineyard contains over 70 acres of land with four different vineyards from which 16 different varieties of grapes are produced. With multiple tasting rooms, a charming deck overlooking the vineyard and an outside patio with bonfire pits, guests are guaranteed to enjoy the ideal tasting treat. On a winery tour, wine drinkers learn from grapes to bottle how this local wine is made, and get an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the wine-making operation.

Keeping Historic Cold Spring Village’s mission of historic preservation, history education and heritage tourism, Cold Spring Brewery was built within an 1804 three bay English-style Cape May County barn from Upper Township. Here, you’ll find a relaxing atmosphere and one-of-a-kind beers on tap, all made with spring water from the Cold Spring property. Four or five staple brews are always available, while limited editions often make appearances.

Hawk Haven Vineyard & Winery is known for its friendly staff, relaxing atmosphere and above all, Winemaker Todd Wuerker’s award-winning wines. Open daily year-round, there is always something to experience and enjoy at the vineyard, such as wine tastings and flights, live music events, wine pairing dinners and much more. Look no further than Hawk Haven’s Rootstock Vineyard Concert Series for something to do this summer, happening every Friday night at the vineyard!

When you visit Jessie Creek Winery’s, you will not only experience the essence of the wine industry as a whole but also the intimate side of its production. Choose wines by the flight or enjoy the entire collection with a tasting room attendant. With a cozy wrap-around porch, a lush vineyard lawn with a fire pit, and a candlelit barrel room with an oak tasting bar, the atmosphere here is the perfect escape from the hustle and bustle of the Jersey Shore.

MudHen Brewing Company, named after the first passenger train in Wildwood, is reflective of its industrial roots: innovative and opportunistic. Aside from high-quality, handcrafted brews, MudHen also offers a complete menu full of classic bar fare and barbeque flavors. With a complete brewing and distribution facility, a full service restaurant, three bars, an outdoor patio with a fire pit, an upstairs lounge area and live music on select dates, there’s no experience like MudHen!

With 22 acres and 6,000 vines yielding 20 tons of high quality fruit, Natali Vineyards boasts 15 different varieties of French, Italian and Spanish grapes. From these varieties comes unique artisan blends created from a combination of skill, creativity, knowledge and labor in the vineyard. Natali Vineyards recently expanded its winemaking craft to the production of fruit wines in addition to classic wines.

Nauti Spirits – a true farm to bottle operation – is New Jersey’s largest distillery, located on a beautiful 60-acre coastal working farm that sits between the Atlantic Ocean and Delaware Bay. Nauti is unique in New Jersey, as they use much of what they grow on their farm to produce their spirits, such as the sweet potato and corn vodka. Nauti grows, mills, mashes, ferments, distills, finishes, ages, bottles and serves their spirits (vodka, gin and rum – and soon-to-be-released bourbon) right here, on their coastal farm.

Slack Tide Brewing Company has a simple philosophy: create a diverse and high-quality line of beers made with all natural ingredients sourced locally whenever possible, and make Slack Tide a destination in where locals feel at home and visitors look forward to returning. From classic beers to unique seasonal flavors, Slack Tide has something for everyone!

Willow Creek Farm & Winery is 50 acres of stunning, unadulterated nature. Among the lush gardens you’ll find a 12,000-square-foot post-beam winery, where you can participate in fun, educational wine and sangria tastings, vineyard tours, wines by the glass and bottle, and a delicious tapas menu. Or, opt for a farm fresh wine cocktail at the outside wine bar overlooking the vineyard.