SOMM Journal: New Mexico Wines

WINE TALK
1

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:

…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

2

I’ve had the Gruet sparkler a few times and it was very good.

Did not know they were labeling Washington state grapes as NM, that’s a little disappointing.

3

They are labeling “American”. Not using Washington grapes and labeling NM. I have sold these wines for years. And while still a really good value, I do not think moving away from their NM grapes did the final product any favors.

JD

4

Brig, they’re not labelling WashState grapes as NM. It says on the front label “Proudly Produced in NewMexico”.
But if you look on the back label, it says “American Sparkling Wine”. So all totally above-board…if a bit deceptive.
When Precept went into “partnership” with Gruet some yrs ago, the intent was to triple their production.
Not enough grapes in all NM to do that. So they started bring in grapes from mostly WashState, maybe some from Calif.
The Gruet sparkler is still pretty decent…for the price. But just that. It’s not nearly as interesting as when it was
made from strictly NM grapes. And the dry table wines, again not labeled as NM but “Proudly Produced in NewMexico”,
but “American Red Wine” on the back. And nothing particularly special.
Tom