One of New Mexico’s beloved wine lines has a new look.
The Lescombes family has been crafting St. Clair wine for more than 30 years and decided to change up its branding.
“We are super excited,” said Sandra Pacheco, national sales director at Lescombes Family Vineyards. “It’s been a long time in the making, or at least in the thoughts of making the move, and it was just time. It was really just time to freshen it up and make it more representative of the product that it is.”
It was important to include the consumers and retailers that have supported St. Clair over the years in the rebranding process.
“We really wanted to put it out to our consumers and customers,” Pacheco said. “And so what we did is we did a survey with three designs. And we put it out there to probably a good 1,000 people, if not more, both consumers and retailers and asked for their input. We truly wanted this to be a label that was representative of New Mexico since this is primarily a New Mexico brand … We wanted it to look and feel like New Mexico.”
The result is artwork that incorporates the colors of New Mexico on a textured label. The newly-branded wines will hit retailer shelves sometime in June. Updates can be found at stclairwine.com.
“We’re trying to take a different approach,” Pacheco said. “We want to maintain our loyal customer base that we’ve had for nearly 30 years, but we also want to introduce the product to new wine consumers. We want them to become as familiar with this brand as our loyal customers have been throughout the years. We want them to also understand the story and the authenticity of the product and how it’s made, where it’s made and by whom, all being New Mexico.”
The St. Clair line is a 100% New Mexico product. The wine is produced from a vineyard in Lordsburg, located in southern New Mexico.
“The St. Clair brand is pivotal to our success as a winery,” Pacheco said. “We produce all the varietals. In this vineyard, (there are) 35 different varietals that are grown and we want to introduce some of those varietals to our consumers. A lot of the consumers are used to maybe drinking some of our blends, but we want them to now try some of the variety of wines.”
St. Clair grapes are grown at an elevation of 4,500 feet. The vineyard produces an average of 7 to 10 tons of grapes per acre, according to a St. Clair news release. St. Clair currently grows cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay, moscato, pinot grigio, merlot, chenin blanc and dozens of other varietals. The winery harvests July through September.
One of St. Clair’s most cherished wine lines, which features one of the top selling wines in the state, Mimbres Red, will soon be branching out on its own.
“The Mimbres wines are not going to come under the St. Clair brand,” Pacheco explained. “They have now reached a point where they are going to stand on their own. We are super excited about what that’s going to bring in the future. It will always be tied to St. Clair, but it’s probably going to look more like a Mimbres Wine Works by St. Clair as opposed to St. Clair being the prominent label on that product. But it’s still part of our portfolio, will always be a part of our portfolio, and we value the Mimbres line.”
