diff --git a/connectors/netty-connector/src/main/java/org/glassfish/jersey/netty/connector/NettyConnector.java b/connectors/netty-connector/src/main/java/org/glassfish/jersey/netty/connector/NettyConnector.java
index fd8ab0fa90..dba784ca8c 100644
--- a/connectors/netty-connector/src/main/java/org/glassfish/jersey/netty/connector/NettyConnector.java
+++ b/connectors/netty-connector/src/main/java/org/glassfish/jersey/netty/connector/NettyConnector.java
@@ -314,7 +314,12 @@ protected void initChannel(SocketChannel ch) throws Exception {
                }
 
                // Make the connection attempt.
-               chan = b.connect(host, port).sync().channel();
+                try {
+                    chan = b.connect(host, port).sync().channel();
+                } catch (Exception e) {
+                    responseAvailable.completeExceptionally(e);
+                    return;
+                }
             }
 
             // assert: clientHandler will always notify responseDone: either normally, or exceptionally
diff --git a/connectors/netty-connector/src/test/java/org/glassfish/jersey/netty/connector/ConnectionExceptionTest.java b/connectors/netty-connector/src/test/java/org/glassfish/jersey/netty/connector/ConnectionExceptionTest.java
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..c0d726a145
--- /dev/null
+++ b/connectors/netty-connector/src/test/java/org/glassfish/jersey/netty/connector/ConnectionExceptionTest.java
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+/*
+ * Copyright (c) 2023 Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
+ *
+ * This program and the accompanying materials are made available under the
+ * terms of the Eclipse Public License v. 2.0, which is available at
+ * http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-2.0.
+ *
+ * This Source Code may also be made available under the following Secondary
+ * Licenses when the conditions for such availability set forth in the
+ * Eclipse Public License v. 2.0 are satisfied: GNU General Public License,
+ * version 2 with the GNU Classpath Exception, which is available at
+ * https://www.gnu.org/software/classpath/license.html.
+ *
+ * SPDX-License-Identifier: EPL-2.0 OR GPL-2.0 WITH Classpath-exception-2.0
+ */
+
+package org.glassfish.jersey.netty.connector;
+
+import org.glassfish.jersey.client.ClientConfig;
+import org.glassfish.jersey.client.ClientProperties;
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.Assertions;
+import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
+
+import javax.ws.rs.ProcessingException;
+import javax.ws.rs.client.ClientBuilder;
+import javax.ws.rs.core.Response;
+
+public class ConnectionExceptionTest {
+    @Test
+    public void testConnectionException() throws InterruptedException {
+        Assertions.assertThrows(ProcessingException.class, ()-> {
+            ClientConfig clientConfig = new ClientConfig();
+            clientConfig.connectorProvider(new NettyConnectorProvider());
+
+            Response r = ClientBuilder.newClient(clientConfig)
+                    .property(ClientProperties.CONNECT_TIMEOUT, 1000)
+                    .property(ClientProperties.READ_TIMEOUT, 1000)
+                    .target("http://test.nonono:8080").request().get();
+            r.close();
+        });
+    }
+}