New Mexico Wine Month returns after pandemic hiatus

After being sidelined for the past few years due to the pandemic, New Mexico Wine Month is officially making a comeback.

The celebration, which includes a variety of wine-centric events throughout the month of August, is overseen by New Mexico Wine to help bring attention to the industry. It was launched in 2017 but ran into a roadblock — as did much of the world — in 2020.

“I think it was 145 days that wineries were closed during early COVID, and that kind of rattled the cages to the point where we weren’t back in business until Labor Day of that year. So August Wine Month sort of was an afterthought in the midst of COVID,” Christopher Goblet, New Mexico Wine executive director, said. “And then we’ve been in some rebuilding years after that.”

New Mexico Wine’s tasting room in Old Town up and running, this year was an ideal time to bring back the month full of festivities.

“I think the reasoning behind it is we start picking grapes the last week of July, and it runs through the rest of October, basically. So August is sort of the kickoff to the harvest,” Goblet said.

“… The grapes are coming in, getting crushed. People are helping pick grapes at vineyards. They’re helping stomp grapes at harvest parties. (They’re) helping, in some cases, with bottling and label parties. So there’s just a lot of ways for people to be involved and engaged in the most exciting time at the vineyard or the winery.”

Wineries throughout the state will be hosting their own harvest celebrations, stomp parties and dinners throughout the month to commemorate the occasion, and it’s also a time when a number of notable new wines will be released.

“We’re going to use the Wine Month to publicize events that are happening across the state that people can attend and just give folks a sense that there’s a lot of excitement,” Goblet said. “There’s a lot of things they can do if they’re interested in visiting wineries. And for the first time, we’re going to have a portal (on nmwine.com) for people to be able to sign up for harvest parties.”

While not every event is finalized, Wine Month will kick off with what Goblet calls a “miniature wine festival” at The Park at Winrock Town Center. The venue has hosted free concert nights throughout the summer, and on Friday, Aug. 1, those festivities will also feature several local wineries on hand with their own tents or booths.

“The wine fest will be attached to the staged area, so people can have a glass of wine and go listen to music,” Goblet said. “I’m sure there’s going to be some food truck element to this that they’re going to bring in. Just a fun way to start August and get the ball rolling for Wine Month.”

Additionally, the organization will be hosting a series of events called Wine Month Wednesdays throughout August at the Oasis Event Center on Albuquerque’s West Side. This will feature a food and wine pairing experience each week with a different chef.

“So it’s local food and local wine. Family friendly event, bring the kids out. We’ll have a $5 kid entry that includes an all beef hot dog,” Goblet said. “But for the adults, we’ll have an entire meal that they can purchase as part of this — and then flights of wine and specials on glasses of wine.”

Winemakers will serve as guest speakers each Saturday in August at New Mexico Wine’s tasting room in Old Town. All of the above will serve as the ideal transition into one of the industry’s signature events — the Harvest Wine and Music Festival — over Labor Day Weekend in both Albuquerque and Las Cruces.

“We’ll have about 20,000 people for that festival at two locations total,” Goblet said.

WAIT TIL NEXT YEAR: The first-ever Global Sparkling Wine Summit was initially expected to be held in Albuquerque on July 8-9. However, some complications in funding resulted in the event being postponed until 2026.

“It was international, so we were flying speakers in from overseas,” Goblet said. “I think there was a sense that too much was up in the air.”