| There are 30 wineries listed for New Mexico, I hope
to get to as many as I can during our stay. I know it won't be
as many as I would like, but I will give it the old college try.
I decided to dedicate an entire page to those wineries that we do
visit, that way I can be a little more focused.
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March tasting
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| St. Clair Winery, the gentleman next to Jim is trying to load 1 case of wine into the carrier on the back of his Harley... He did get it worked out, though we did offer to help drink it just in case he needed to get rid of a bottle or two ;)
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Connie was helping us during our tasting, we could taste anything on the wine menu, so of course I bellied up to the bar and said: "Give me one of everything!". St. Clair is the largest wine producer in NM, with 6 different labels (plus a lot of bulk wine for sale). We did buy a couple of bottles. |
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| This is Luna Rossa Winery, and Jim is waiting for me to finish taking the pictures so that we can go inside to enjoy some wonderful wines (we just didn't know it yet :) (as I am writing this up, I am SO enjoying a glass of NINI, their Italian blend. We had it with Herbed Pork Tenderloin and was it ever YUMMY!)
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It still amazes me to have such huge vineyards in the desert, but they have been hand picked for the type of weather and climate. Paolo also has a nursery of grape vines stock, he grafts them to grow in AZ, NM & TX. He grows quite a few Italians which is really exciting (and he will be planting more Italian varietals) |
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| The inside of the tasting room, I was surprised at the size. Sylvia also has a side line of graphic art items, glass etching, color laser prints on tile, things like that. She does glasses, bottles, you name it, she can do it and she does a wonderful job, we looked at a lot of her handiwork. | Paolo and Sylvia D'Andrea, owners and Paolo is also
the winemaker. Jim and I had a wonderful time chatting with both of
them, one on one. Andrea and her art work, Paolo and his wine.
You know me by now, I can talk up a storm about wine and Paolo was
so full of information about NM wine and how it all works there.
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| We got a chance to also taste a few wines that were
not on the list and I am going back later this week to order a case
of one of them! It is an Italian wine, Refosco (mostly used in
Northern Italy for local wine), and oh my gosh. The varietal
is from the Fruili area of Italy (NE section) and it is inky black
in color with the deep berry flavors. We also got to taste his
Sangiovese (bought a bottle and he doesn't have it for sale yet),
his late harvest Zinfandel (from the barrel), and we got to compare
several other years of the same wine (like his Merlot). I was
in seventh heaven!!!! (I am still enjoying that glass of Nini :)...
It was such a treasure to find this wonderful wine out in the middle
of the desert in Deming, NM. I would truly recommend this wine
to anyone, and on top of it, the prices are unbelievable for the
quality of wine. If you like the sweeter wines (which is seems
that a lot of the people in the SW do), Paolo also caters to you,
but he is trying to convert the sweet wine drinkers too. (oh-oh, I
ran out of Nini in my glass...) I liked the wine so much, I
joined their wine club, and it doesn't hurt that it gets you
discounts on the wine too! (we went back again to buy another bottle
of the Nini, couldn't help ourselves...) The next chance we get to go wine tasting is on my Birthday, the 31st. As I mentioned on the March page, tried to find a few others that were not in existence any longer, but we did find a couple of others that were fun. Just South of Las Cruces, down along the Rio Grande river is La Vina Winery. The property is absolutely gorgeous!
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| This is the front of La Vina Winery, the upper half is the apartments of the owners & winemaker, the lower half is the tasting room and winery. The winery does two big functions each year, a Jazz and Blues festival in April and the Harvest & Grape stomp in October. |
These are the vines of La Vina, they are actually starting to leaf out and it looks like life is beginning again in the vineyard. They are very well established and are going to make lots of great wine in the future.
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| While in the tasting room, this family was renting the grounds for next year for a sweet sixteen birthday party for the older daughter in the pink top. I mentioned that it was my birthday and the sang Happy Birthday to me :) Ken Stark is pouring some wine for the husband. |
I talked my way into the rest of the winery, Ken is drawing a taste of his Merlot that is just waiting to be bottled. Jim thinks we were invited back because he was out of so many of his "dry" reds that we prefer. Either way, we enjoyed ourselves tasting several different wines that Ken was getting ready to bottle for the big April shindig.
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Ken mentioned that there was a winery just down the street, 3 miles. The winery is called Zin Valle and, well, we cheated a little, it was actually in TX. Three sides of the winery property are bordered by New Mexico, but the winery faces onto the street in Texas. I just couldn't pass it up, so we headed down that way.
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| Here is the front of the tasting room for Zin Valle, the building was very pretty and the tasting room was very nice too. Kathi, owner and wife of the winemaker waited on us during our tasting. We enjoyed ourselves tasting their wines, we bought a couple of bottles, a bottle of Zin and a bottle of sparkling. I can miss out on a sparkling... |
I couldn't pass up taking a picture of this table, it was absolutely gorgeous. They had it specially made, there are saying all around the perimeter and just wonderful artwork all over. They rent out this room for dinners, and use it for wine events. Nothing more fun that having dinner at a winery, sitting with the barrels and eating off a great table.
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April tasting
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| Well, I didn't get much more wine tasting in, I had
hoped to get up North, to at least Gruet Winery (one of my favorite
sparkling wines) near Albuquerque, but no such luck. Thank
goodness Luna Rossa was near by, Jim and I went over to check on
things and did a little more tasting. Then my Mom and sister
Heidi came down to visit and they went with me to Luna Rossa too!
I truly enjoy their wines, Heidi seemed to like them too, especially
the Nini... I was here to order my case of Refosco, but I had
to have it shipped to my Mom's house because I didn't have room for
it right now. Jim was a little disappointed, but when I have
it shipped to us later, he will enjoy every drop! Sylvia's
sister (sorry, I can't remember her name) was behind the bar pouring
the wine for us. She was really fun to chat with, she knew the
wine and she also did the buying for the gift shop. She
brought in a bunch of great spring items, I was really struggling to
keep from buying a bunch of stuff that I had no room for.
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| The grape vines have budded out, you can see the green across the top. I got really close and you could see the tiny, itty, bitty grape clusters that were just waiting to become oh, so, grown up to make some great wine. |
Heidi and Mom sitting in the covered area at the tasting room, waiting for me to finish taking my pictures. |
| If you ever get a chance to do some wine tasting in New Mexico, I would truly recommend it! |
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