Wine industry takes long history to new heights

A protective king and an inpatient monk nearly 400 years ago set in motion what has become the New Mexico wine industry.

Chris Goblet, the executive director of New Mexico Wine Growers Association, said the spat let to an industry that produces about million cases of wine per year, much by small wineries.

The king of Spain made it illegal to plant vines in the new world. So to get the product to the state, wine had to be shipped from Spain to Mexico. The wine was then loaded onto donkeys and carried over land to New Mexico, Goblet said.

"One monk got tired of waiting for wine and he smuggled vines on his donkey to right around Socorro and planted the first vineyard in 1629," Goblet said.

Most wineries in New Mexico are small, mom and pop or family operated. Two producers account for about 60% of the production.

Gruet Winery makes about 400,000 cases of wine and Lescombes Winery produces about 200,000 cases of wine per year, Goblet said. The other wineries make about 400,000 cases combined.

Much of the grapes are grown in southern New Mexico, from Anthony west to Deming and Lordsburg.

New Mexico benefits from its climate.

"That's one benefit of having a hot, dry climate We don't use a lot of herbicides, pesticides," Goblet said. "We don't have mold, we don't have pests, we don't have disease that you do in wetter climates."

Noisy Water Winery in Ruidoso produces about 40,000 cases of wine per year. Jasper Riddle, the owner, said he's in the middle of his harvest season and it's appearing to be a good year for grapes.

"It was warm, but you didn't have big hail or big frost happen this year. So your big loss events didn't happen," Riddle said.

Noisy Water uses wine from all over the state. Some is on the Santa Ana Pueblo and the winery has contracts with farms, many in the southern and southwest New Mexico.

What are the emerging trends?

"Definitely bubbles. I definitely see sparkling wine (in New Mexico)" Goblet said. "We already know that we do that well here."

There was a push in recent years to increase wine production in the state by providing farmers with incentives for growing new vines on their land.

Goblet said farmers were paid $5 for every new vine. That led to 200,000 new vines and increased New Mexico's total production to over 1,200 acres.

"It's an innovative program." he said. "It's not something that happens elsewhere in the country."