Page 26 - Italian-American Herald - December 2024

26 ITALIANAMERICANHERALD.COM | DECEMBER 2024 ITALIAN-AMERICAN HERALD
WINING AND DINING
Amalthea Cellars: A quiet vintner making world-class wines in South Jersey
By Nikki
Palladino
While working
as a sommelier and
living in New York
City, at least once a
week, I nosed a glass
of the best-vintage
this or that from the world’s most infl uential
wine regions and took note. I have pages
of them – some scribbled in proper tasting
books and others annotated on wine-stained
tasting sheets; the kind that get handed out
at industry events and become increasingly
diffi cult to hold in the same hand as a wine
glass and pen.
These days, as a food and wine
writer based in South Jersey, I don’t get
many opportunities to taste a wine that’s
truly capable of transporting me back
to the classroom where I trained at The
International Culinary Center or the
restaurants where I worked my way from
server to sommelier. That is, until I visited a
farm winery in our very own Atco, N.J. It's
called Amalthea Cellars and it’s not trying to
be something it’s not.
Its driveway isn’t paved and there isn’t
Photo collage in the Amalthea tasting room depicts Louis Caracciolo’s grandfather Emilio making wine.
a calendar of kitschy events. As a matter of
fact, for as remarkable as the wine is, the
winemaker, Louis Caracciolo, is remarkably
“hands off” about the award-winning wines
he bottles on his farm property, which he
established in 1976.
As he tells me over a glass of Sixth
Edition Carme’, a proper “GSM” or blend
of Grenache, Syrah, and Mourvèdre, he’s
declassifi ed his wines without problem,
meaning he’s taken something
intended for a premium
bottling and reserved it for a
single varietal table wine. It’s
his artistic approach to all-
things wine that’s ironically
paved the way for Louis to
consult for household names
such as Chateaus Margaux
and Cheval Blanc. Moreover,
back in 2007-2008, Louis’s
wines outperformed 2004
Cheval Blanc in a blind
tasting attended by non
other than George Taber,
the New Jersey native and
only reporter present for the historic 1976
Paris Tasting.
At Amalthea, Louis and his $30 reds
continue to outshine some of the most
legendary wines in the world, and yet, it’s
only recently that I discovered the property to
write about it for IAH readers! But Louis has
been innovating at Amalthea – a reference to
Jupiter’s little moon, for close to fi ve decades,
and he’s not planning to scale back anytime
soon.
No doubt his work ethic is a credit to his
parents, who he calls frozen food pioneers,
partially because of their affi liation with
Clarence Birdseye, who launched the frozen
foods revolution, which started in New Jersey.
Louis’ grandparents came to this country
in their teens – from Napoli and Abruzzi,
respectively; his “grandpop Emilio” passed to
him his passion for making wine, and Louis
tells me his mom was an unbelievable cook,
encouraging him to become a certifi ed chef
when he lived in New York City.
An innovator himself, Louis earned his
degree from Pratt Institute’s food science,
technology, and engineering program, thus
paving the way for him to become the fi rst
commercial winemaker in his family.
Visiting the grounds, with its hundred-
year-old building and photos of “grandpop
Emilio” proudly displayed on the wall of
the tasting room, Amalthea Cellars feels like
its situated in France or Italy instead of off
the White Horse Pike; 36 or 42 minutes
from South Philadelphia and Atlantic City,
respectively.
Cheers to Louis! Cheers to his wonderful
staff, including Ursula, and the vignerons (or
wine growers), who contribute grapes for
Louis’s exceptionally good wines bottled right
here in New Jersey. It’s incredible what Louis
has accomplished in just over four decades. IAH
Nikki Palladino is a writer, instructor, and
wine enthusiast living in South Jersey. Her
writing has appeared in literary magazines,
as well as online poetry collections. At-work
on her debut novel about fi rst-gen Italian
Americans whose parents own competing
Italian restaurants, Nikki is also an Adjunct
Professor at Saint Joseph's University and
a Certifi ed Sommelier through the Court of
Master Sommeliers Americas. Follow her @
nikki_pall.
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