Just tasty and has a World Spirits Competition award to confirm it. The absinthe, like other digestifs (chartreuse or sambuca), tastes of anise, but has numerous other identifiable herbs in it. KGB does this beautifully with such offerings as Taos Lightining, Brimstone Absinthe, and Vodka Viracocha. Distilleries require more initial capital investment with their copper stills and long aging times so if you’re going to distill you’d better be sure you can produce a quaffable brew. The final step in the booze trail was the intriguingly named KGB Spirits located north of Santa Fe in Alcalde, NM. It’s a sweet wine which has New Mexican red chile, cocoa and cherry flavors. Great with anything napped in a red chili sauce. Mexican food lovers won’t want to leave without a bottle of the Chocolate Caliente which is a blend of Ruby Cabernet and Baco Noir. They make everything here from Cabernets to Montepulciano with Whites and Roses as well. Hand-punching gently extracts both the color and flavor from grapes, and the difference is both visible & tastable. The grapes get the now rare hand punching technique, two to three times each day, to break up the grape skins. The juice is then fermented into wine in small,100 gallon totes (or batches). After sorting, the grapes are put in the crusher. Their wine production starts with de-stemming the grapes and sorting the grapes by hand. After you tour the facility and taste the wine you can sit out front and enjoy watching the largest swarm of hummingbirds I’ve ever seen.īlack Mesa grows six grape varietals and each year buys select grapes from other New Mexico growers throughout the state.
Sporting some delicious reds this tiny vineyard not only has a feline CEO named Sola but for the anthropologically minded, petroglyphs on the property. Hitting the road north brought us to Black Mesa Winery in Velarde. And it tastes like a distinctly New Mexico pinot not like an Oregon pinot which is down to the different soils.” “Our pinot noir that’s from this property won a gold medal in an international competition” says Richard Reinders. To speed the ripening they’ve developed canopy management which means thinning the leaves, getting everything in between the wires so the fruit gets more sunlight. They’ve learned to adapt to the high altitude and harvest early to avoid the early frosts. The vines are original to the estate and the dry climate generally eliminates the need to spray for insects or mildew so you can check the box on organic for these.Įstrella Del Norte now produces more than 25 different wines, everything from blended table wines to pinot noirs and wines made from the property’s apple and pear orchards. Sitting down with the owners Eileen and Richard Reinders we discussed the challenges and rewards of producing their array of award winning wines. So in an attempt to bring everything up to date a friend and I set out to visit two local wineries and one craft distiller.įirst stop was just north of Santa Fe at the Estrella del Norte vinyard. But as time passes and taste buds develop we all start to crave the subtle flavors that can best compliment the local food and this is something that New Mexico wineries are achieving at a rapid pace. When you’re a kid eating the green chili burgers at the Bobcat Bite wine pairings are not part of the picture. Having been a regular NM visitor since childhood the closest I ever came to enjoying fermented beverages was the roadside stands we’d pass selling local fruit ciders from the summer harvests.
#Black mesa winery full
Add a slew of craft distilleries and you have a full service alcohol industry. From Truth or Consequences in the south to the foothills of the Rockies in Taos, grapevines and wineries began to blossom (or more accurately, fruit). Jump forward to the 21st century and wine is back in a big way.īy the 1970s adventurous growers were starting up again. Although a few growers survived until 1933 when Prohibition was repealed the industry took an almost fatal hit losing most of its acreage in the 1943 Rio Grande flood.
government applied the brakes during Prohibition. With this tradition of wine production New Mexican wines went from strength to strength until the U. What comes to mind when you hear the words ‘New Mexico?’ Kokopelli? A brilliant crimson ristra? Yes and Yes? Now how about wine? Would you be surprised to know that New Mexico wineries date back to the founding of the territory in the 17th century? In fact they’re the oldest in the country and were founded by Franciscans who grew grapes to ferment for communion wine.
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