Black mesa winery10/30/2022 Most important for us is for our visitors to have a relaxing experience here. Most of our in-store products, from honey to hand sanitizer to hot sauces, are produced in northern New Mexico. Our wines and ciders are registered with New Mexico True. We are involved with the Española Humane animal shelter-we have eleven cats and two dogs, with strays showing up here on a regular basis-and are active in the Santa Fe Opera’s Española Valley Opera Guild. We support the Mesa Prieta Petroglyph Project as we have petroglyphs on our property. Is there anything else you’d like to share with edible readers?īeing local is important to us. They can watch the hummingbirds, take a walk in the vineyards or around the labyrinth, or follow our petroglyph trail. We offer covered picnic tables for those who want to bring their own lunch or snacks. When people ask about the grape being fermented, it’s an opportunity to taste a wine of an earlier vintage. Often, the odor of fermenting grapes is a part of the experience. The smell of piñon burning, the golden leaves on the trees lining the Rio Grande, the crisp fall air-it’s the perfect place to be. Starting Friday, July 31, we are hosting a farmers market, Farm Friday, here at the winery.ĭescribe a perfect fall day of eating and drinking in Velarde. For those doing their own Zoom with family and friends, we have a special that includes wine, glasses, and pistachios. We also do an online tasting, called Black Mesa Buzz, with our winemaker Craig Dunn every other Thursday. Quite a few are people just driving to get out of the house, or out of the big city. Many are locals who just haven’t had the time in the past. We’ve seen an increase in new people stopping by. Recently we’ve been offering outside tastings (but no glasses). BLACK MESA WINERY FREEOur solution has been more online opportunities to purchase wines and receive discounted or free shipping. The pandemic has hit us hard, as it has everyone in the wine industry-from grape growers to tasting rooms. Wineries weren’t allowed to reopen in time with breweries, and some winemakers have reported grappling with surplus wine. We also purchase small batches from neighbors here in the Velarde Valley. Here on the property, we grow mainly Montepulciano, pinot gris, and albariño cabernet sauvignon, zinfandel, and syrah come from Deming and tempranillo, malbec, and barbera come from Belen. Abiquiu White comes from riesling, traminette, and chenin blanc grapes grown at Las Parras de Abiquiu. Our Antelope is made from the Bordeaux grapes: cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, and merlot. Our unique red blend, Coyote, is made with cabernet sauvignon and zinfandel. What are your favorite varietals to grow? What are your favorite varietals to source from other growers? This year we have watered more than any other year.īlack Mesa creates a number of unique blends. The system is set up to water three times each week, with running time based on the heat and amount of rain. Our three acres of vines are drip-irrigated. How do you keep your vineyards happy in these conditions? We have named the barrels after mountains in Colorado, grandkids, our cats and dogs, and many of the small towns in northern New Mexico. Wine and its movement require close record keeping. We have more than two hundred barrels of wine in a mixture of oak from France and American oak from Minnesota. Usually, less than one hundred cases of each blend are bottled every year. We focus on hands-on processing, using minimal equipment-and always at gentle speeds. What is unique about your winemaking? Does every barrel still get its own name?Īfter five thousand years, there is not a lot of “new” in winemaking. We’ve owned and operated Black Mesa Winery for twenty years. The art of Santa Fe and Taos brought us to New Mexico. After five years, it was time to get out of the rain and back to dryer weather and a higher elevation. We fell in love with wine in California, then moved to Oregon to learn to grow grapes and make wine. How did you get to where you are now? What’s the backstory, and what was the moment that brought you to your current work? Most of their wines are sold in Velarde, but they also have a New Mexico distributor and a wine club, and ship to forty states. They use their own fruit from over three acres of vineyards and purchase grapes and apples from across New Mexico. All fruit is hand sorted, pressed, fermented, and bottled at the winery. Black Mesa Winery produces wines and ciders using 100 percent New Mexico grapes and apples.
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