Old York Cellars Located near Flemington and Lambertville, New Jersey has always been about wine, but somewhere along the way, food became almost as important to the experience.

Today, guests might spend an afternoon sharing tapas and a bottle of wine in the vineyard, come for weekend brunch, enjoy a multi-course wine pairing dinner, have dinner before a Wine & Comedy show, or arrive aboard the Hunterdon Wine Express for a winery lunch.

There are even 14-course wine pairing dinners.

How did a New Jersey winery get here?

There wasn’t a grand plan to create a culinary destination. The food program evolved over time, one experience building on another. And one of the most important moments in that evolution came when Chef José Diaz joined Old York Cellars in 2019.

A Chef We Already Knew

We didn’t find José through a chef search.

We already knew him.

Originally from Galicia in northwestern Spain, José was the executive chef at a Princeton restaurant that featured Old York Cellars wines. Through that relationship, we got to know José and his cooking long before he ever worked for us.

His culinary background included time at the legendary El Bulli in Spain, one of the most influential restaurants in modern cooking. His journey also included several years in the Dominican Republic, where he learned the local cuisine before eventually making his way to New Jersey.

In 2019, an opportunity brought José to Old York Cellars as chef at our former Quaker Bridge tasting room.

Before long, his food was making its way to the vineyard too.

Bringing the Chef to the Vineyard

By 2021, José moved to the winery.

What had been a relatively modest food offering began to grow. There were tapas and boards. Paella became a favorite. More substantial dishes followed. Eventually, brunch and increasingly ambitious wine pairing dinners became part of the mix.

José’s Spanish roots were a natural influence.

Over the years, his menus have included paella, empanadas, Spanish meatballs, Tortilla Española, Pan con Tomate, Spanish meats and cheeses, and Tarta de Santiago, the traditional almond cake associated with his native Galicia.

Those influences remain readily apparent today. The central New Jersey winery describes its current menu as Spanish-inspired, and José’s dishes continue to range from casual tapas to more elaborate entrées. 

But the goal was never to turn Old York Cellars into a Spanish restaurant.

José’s cooking ranges much more broadly. Seasonal ingredients and different cuisines find their way onto his menus. Private events give him even more freedom to create around the tastes of the guests, including Indian dishes and other international cuisines.

His background influences the food program without defining its boundaries.

When the Chef and the Cellar Started Working Together

Something else happened as the winery grew.

Food and wine stopped being two separate parts of a visit.

Having a chef working alongside a winery creates possibilities that don’t exist in quite the same way in a conventional restaurant. Instead of simply choosing a wine to accompany a finished dish, the process can work in both directions.

A wine can inspire something the chef creates and a dish Chef José is developing can send the winery staff back to the cellar looking for the right wine.

José’s Grilled Cod in a Pinot Gris Garlic Butter Sauce⁠ is one example. Old York Cellars Pinot Gris isn’t simply the wine served alongside the dish. It’s part of the dish.

That collaboration gradually led to something more ambitious: creating entire dining experiences around wine.

Today, the Chef-Curated Wine & Dine experiences begin with the wines and Chef José creating multi-course menus around them. 

From Tapas to 14 Courses

The range of what Old York Cellars offers today would have been difficult to imagine when José joined the winery team in 2019.

At one end, it can be simple: a plate of food, a bottle of wine and an afternoon overlooking the vineyard.

The addition of Weekend Bubbly Brunch added another reason to linger over food and wine.

Then there are the Wine & Dine experiences in the Vista Room.

Guests can choose a 3-course pairing, move into a more extensive 5-course experience, or put themselves in José’s hands for the 14-course “Oma Casa” Tapas Pairing, featuring 14 small courses paired with seven Old York Cellars wines. 

Chef José’s Monthly Wine Pairing Dinners provide another opportunity to experiment. The menu changes each month with the dinner, drawing inspiration from seasons, regional cuisines, special occasions and the wines themselves. 

That’s a long way from adding a little food to a wine tasting.

Food Became Part of Almost Everything

Perhaps the best measure of how much the program has grown is that there isn’t just one way to experience it.

Come for an afternoon at the vineyard and food can be part of the day.

Come for the weekend brunch and the wine becomes part of a leisurely meal.

Wine & Comedy guests can enjoy dinner, charcuterie and tapas before settling in for the show.

Passengers aboard the Hunterdon Wine Express combine a train excursion through scenic Hunterdon County with wine and José’s curated lunch back at the winery.

Private events allow José to build menus around the celebration and the guests.

And someone looking for a dinner centered entirely around food and wine can spend an evening working through course after course in the Vista Room.

What started as food accompanying a winery visit has become a collection of very different culinary experiences.

Still a Working Farm Winery

For all the growth of the culinary experiences, Old York Cellars is still first and foremost a winery.

That’s precisely what makes the food program different.

The vineyard is right outside. The wines are here. And the people creating the wine and the people creating the food can work together.

Sometimes the wine comes first. Sometimes the dish does.

Sometimes the experience is seven wines and 14 courses.

And sometimes it’s simply sitting outside with friends, sharing some food and opening a bottle.

The range between those two experiences has become enormous.

One Dish at a Time

When we first met José, he was an Executive Chef in Princeton, New Jersey at a restaurant that happened to feature several Old York Cellars wines.

We couldn’t have known where that relationship would lead.

In the years since he joined Old York Cellars, the culinary program has continued to evolve, from Spanish-inspired tapas and paella to brunch, private events, the Hunterdon Wine Express and increasingly sophisticated wine pairing dinners.

It wasn’t something that happened overnight or according to some master plan.

It grew one dish, one dinner and one idea at a time.

And somewhere along the way, Old York Cellars evolved from a place to taste New Jersey wine into a place to experience just how much can happen when the chef and the cellar share the same table.