As linked on WineTerroirist, DeborahParkerWong writes about the NM wine industry:
SOMM:NM Wine Industry

A bit of a strange/slap-dash article I thought.

About the Gruet Wnry, featured as NM's premier wnry:
Quote:

...with 75 acres under vine, Gruet produces 150,000–175,000 cases of sparkling annually.


Wow...those are amazingly prolific vnyds!! In fact, under PreceptBrands, the bulk of the Gruet grapes come out of WashState. What they do w/ their NM-grown grapes I have no idea...presumably blended away into their bulk stuff. But Gruet no longer makes a NM wine...it's all labeled "American Sparkling Wine" because of the imported grapes.

She highlights JasperRiddle's Noisy Water Wnry (from the name of his original base, Ruidoso) as one of the cutting edge modern wineries. When I tasted thru the wines at their tasting room, I was singularly unimpressed. He's more into cutsey labels ("Tighty Whitey", "Big Legs Red", "Dirty" for his unfiltered reds), mostly sweet wines, and chile & chocolate flavored wines. It probably does well w/ the tourist trade in SantaFe, but none of the retailers that carry quality wines carry the NoisyWater wines.

She does nail it on highlighting the Padberg's Vivac Wnry in Embudo. Jesse & Chris are making some of the best NM wines that you can find.

Alas, she misses the Black Mesa Wnry (which she drove right by on her trip to Vivac) which is right up there w/ Vivac for quality NM wines.

A rather scatter-shot view of the NM wine industry...but what they hey...any publicity they can use.
Tom


Edited by TomHill (02-04-2019 07:07:47)