This is an unedited version of my print column this week, so I thought I'd post it first. Here goes:

Winter Blues Festival

Natali Vineyards

221 Route 47 North (Mile Marker 12.9).

Cape May Court House, NJ 08210.

Saturday, Jan. 24, noon to 5 p.m., rain or shine.

Admission is free.

Call 972-7318 or 465-0075 for more information, or visit myspace.com/celli1977.

CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE -- Oh, the weather outside is frightful—finally, with the region receiving a light dusting of snow earlier this week, it really started to feel like winter. Grey, listless skies, cold, wet weather, mix in another Eagles disappointment and the end of the holiday season, and what do you have?

“The winter blues, so if you have the winter blues, you might as well get rid of them by coming out to our Winter Blues Festival,” said Kevin Celli, junior partner with Natali Vineyards, on the Goshen/Cape May Court House border on the bay side of Route 47.

The vineyard will be having its first Winter Blue Festival this Saturday, and has an impressive offering of local food to pair with the locally made wine, and the blues stylings of none other than Frank Bey, a blues artist who frequently plays in Cape May’s Congress Hall as well the Cape May music festivals.

“We’re trying to do an event each month (there was a Harvest Festival in November and a Holiday Festival in December) and with January we thought Winter Blues was appropriate. I started asking around about what musician or band to get and almost everyone was saying Frank Bey,” Celli said. “I contacted him and we talked for awhile, he checked us out and then agreed to do it.”

In addition to the over-the-top talent of Bey and his band, the vineyard will be hosting its largest collection of vendors to date. In addition to being able to sample Natali wines (including the first public offerings of their 2009 releases), visitors will be able to taste and purchase offering from Seaside Cheese, Victory Baking (appetizers and artisan breads and baked goods), Gus Pizzeria (homemade third-generation family chili), The Deck (award winning chowder from Wildwood’s Seafood Ferstival), Up In Smoke (discounted cigars) and Emma Jams (jams and jellies, Beach Plum Jelly from locally grown and harvested beach plums).

“It’s our best collection of vendors we’ve ever had,” said Celli, who said recent festivals have introduced many locals and visitors to locally made wine for the first time.

“The Beach Plum Wine sold out, people went crazy over that and bought us out. And then at the Holiday Festival, the Christmas Blueberry Wine was the top seller, and other local blends sold well, like the Cape May Court House Blush, Goshen White (a French, dry wine), and the Cedar Hammock, “Al Natali’s own special best-of-the-best recipe,” Celli said. Cedar Hammock was the original name of the town of Goshen, “and we mix the best grapes that we grow right here in Goshen for our wine master’s blend.”

The Natali Vineyards site was selected in the spring of 2000 and after one year of bio-renovation the first 2,000 vines were planted. Each subsequent year more vines were planted and the total number is nearly 5,000 on a little more than 6 acres. There are 13 different varieties on the tract allowing the partnership to produce the best blends possible.

Celli said the grapes they specialize in grow very well in the sandy soil of Cape May County.

“As one might expect, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Sauvignon Blanc do very well in this climate,” and are all award-winners for the vineyard in state events.

The vineyard is open six days a week (closed Mondays) in January, with tasting room hours from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Rob Seitzinger can be e-mailed at seitz@catamaranmedia.com or you can comment on this story by calling 624-8900, ext. 250. Visit his Cape Cuisine food blog online at http://cuisineblog.shorenewsnow.com.