(PressofAtlanticCity) - Sommeliers used to scoff at California’s wine industry, saying its vintners could never match varieties from France and Italy. But as wineries expanded in the ’60s and ’70s, techniques improved and recognition grew, and now it’s a premier wine-making region. Garden State growers are looking for the same respect, and South Jersey is steadily becoming known as its own wine country. “I’ve always said that New Jersey is the best place to make wine on the East Coast,” said Gary Pavlis, a wine expert at Rutgers University. “Only a few years ago people would say, ‘Oh, they grow wine in New Jersey?’ You’re never going to hear that anymore. Someone’s got to live under a rock to say that.”