Mark Carduner gets behind the wheel of his John Deere farmgator, starts it up and in no time we're rolling through the rows of grapes at Silver Decoy Winery.

Butterflies flutter in the July morning air around the farm utility vehicle, and a summer breeze brushes our skin.

At the end of each row is a colorful rosebush, embellishments for warm-weather weddings but also harbingers for disease that could affect the grapes. The roses are a European tradition, still extant throughout Bordeaux, explains Carbuner, one of seven founders and owners of the Robbinsville vineyards and winery, one of the first in Mercer County.

The ride is as refreshing as a glass of the young vineyard's Traminette or Cabernet Franc. A similar experience is in store for enthusiasts or beginners who participate in the "Walk in the Vineyard Wine Trail Weekend" July 23 and 24, an event organized by the Garden State Wine Growers Association designed to draw attention to the state's burgeoning wine industry.

"We started doing this five years ago and copied it after the New York State Finger Lakes wine trail weekends, which are incredibly successful," says Tom Sharko, association president and owner of Alba Vineyards in Finesville.

"Some of the wineries have music. Others will have food and wine pairings. Everybody does something a little different. All the wineries make this a learning experience."

Part of the lesson is that there are two viticultural regions in the state. In the north, where winters are particularly harsh, French American Hybrid and Native American grapes grow best, yielding a variety of wines unique to the Northeast and, growers say, becoming more popular with the public.

In the south, the more classical and traditional vinifera grapes, often associated with Californian and French wines, abound.

Each of the wineries on the trail weekend this year expects 300 to 400 visitors a day. Even a teetotaler like me, who appreciates a day in nature, can enjoy the tour since the state's 26 wineries are located on some of the most gorgeous landscapes in the Garden State.

At Silver Decoy

Carbuner stops the farmgator at an acre devoted to raspberries, used to make Silver Decoy's Red Raspberry and Golden Red Raspberry wines. The light, luscious berries sparkle with droplets of water from a light rain. In the distance the 110 green acres that belong to the winery - most of them devoted to field crops - roll out to the horizon.

"We own all the way out to that two-story gray home," says a sun-tanned Carduner, who explains how this venture began. One day in 2001, he and four buddies sat on the deck at what is now Silver Decoy enjoying an adult beverage after a hard day of work building a house. They got to noticing the contour of the 12 acres directly in front of them, which are now brimming with grapes, primarily vinifera.

"That day we noticed the slopes all faced to the southwest, which is ideal for growing grapes," says the 44-year-old Carduner, who spent 25 years in the retail wine business with his brother, and Silver Decoy partner, Brian Carduner.

The seven men decided to plant three acres of Chardonnay and Cabernet Franc to see what would happen. The grapes took. So they planted some of the more durable French American hybrids next, just for protection.

Then they went back to planting viniferas and haven't looked back. Their vines are vibrant with Chardonnay, Cabernet Franc, Chambourcin, Marechal Foch, Merlot and Traminette (a variety with Gewurztraminer lineage developed by Cornell University). Their experimental plantings include Syrah, Sangiovese, Pinot Blanc, Viognier, Cabernet Sauvignon. All show promise.

"The word is out," Carduner says. "Vinifera grows in South Jersey."

During the statewide wine trail weekend - one of three that take place annually - the partners will gussy up some haywagons, hand out souvenir glasses, pour vino and share their passion with visitors. Both days are an opportunity for Morris County natives to experience a different part of the state. Silver Decoy is a one-hour drive from Parsippany.

In the north

Some visitors like to visit one winery in one or more of the state's 12 winery regions, listed at www.newjerseywines.com/winetrails.html, complete with maps and directions.

One spot in the north is the 250-acre Matarazzo Farms and its Four Sisters Winery in White Township, begun in 1982 and named for the four daughters of founders and owners Robert "Matty" Matarazzo, a third-generation farmer, and his wife, Laurie, the original winemaker and now an Episcopal priest. It also is a one-hour drive from Parsippany.

Visitors to Four Sisters - who come from as far as Israel, Asia and Europe - will get tours of the vineyards as well as the wine cellar, where 26-year-old assistant winemaker and manager Craig Hosbach of Phillipsburg will explain the processes of grape-crushing and de-stemming, fermenting, filtering and bottling.

In the fields wine trailers will learn a lot about the French American Hybrid and Native American grapes grown there.

"Napa Valley or Sonoma Valley would not be able to produce as easily as we do some of the Native American varieties or hybrids we grow here, where the soil can be rocky and the growing season shorter," Hosbach says. "Hybrids have gained popularity over time, along with other varieties we're starting to see growing around the area, like Norton, or Cynthiana, a Native American grape variety known to make a very good dry red wine. That's getting more recognition on the East Coast.

"New Jersey is now the fifth largest producer of wine in the country. People are starting to turn their eyes our way."

One of the tour leaders at Four Sisters Winery will be 22-year-old Sadie Matarazzo, the youngest daughter of the four and the one for whom the winery's famous Sadie's Apple fruit dessert wine was named.

Like most things on a vineyard, that wine comes with a story.

"I was only 2 or 3 when my mother was the winemaker," she explains with a smile. "Instead of getting a babysitter, she had me sit in the cellar with her. I used to walk up to the apple orchard and I'd always come back with an apple."

Four Sisters is known for other wines named for family members, too. Each of Sadie's sisters has a label named for her - Strawberry Serena, Robin's Raspberry and Cherry Melissa. A spiced apple wine, Spicy Sisters, is named for the girls' teenage years. Maggie's Magic, a sparkling wine, is named for Matty Matarazzo's mother, Pop's Port for his father and Papa's Red for his grandfather.

A little history

Above all, the wine trail weekend is intended as a celebration of New Jersey wines, which are coming into their own. It's taken a while, Carbuner says. The roots of this slow growth extend back to 1933, when Prohibition ended in the United States.

"The federal government told each state to take care of its own rules after that," he says. "California, with well over 2,000 wineries now, made it very easy to go into the wine business. But New Jersey set into law that there could be only one winery for every one million inhabitants of the state."

So, from the 1930s to the 1980s, when that law was rescinded, there were only six or seven wineries here. In the past 25 years, though, the agricultural potential of Jersey grapes has been recognized and encouraged.

"When we planted here at Silver Decoy in 2001, there were 14 wineries in New Jersey. We got our license last December and we were the 22nd winery," Carbuner says. "Now there are 28 and by this time next year I am quite certain the number will be in the mid-30s."

New Jerseyans are enamored of wineries, he speculates, because they appreciate open green belts, as evidenced by their support of open space referendums. He's one of those New Jerseyans who appreciates open space.

"I worked inside for the past 25 years," he says. "When you work in a tall building all day, a chance to get into the sunshine and drink some wine and walk a farm makes a difference in your life."