Interesting article in today's 750Daily by Tyler Wetherall on the growth of the wine industry in NM:
[NMWineIndustryGrowth](https://daily.sevenfifty.com/a-case-stu ... ine-state/)
Having followed the growth of the Modern NM wine industry since 1974, I have two comments:
1. French Hybrids: The article implies that since the start of the "modern" NM wine industry in the '80's, the emphasis was on planting French/American hybrids that would thrive "despite cool nights, high elevation, and dry rocky calcium-rich soils". In point of fact, much of the emphasis back in the late-'70's/early-'80's was on French/American hybrids because of the winter-kill problem in NM, where every every 5-6 yrs we would get severe Winter freezes that would kill the wines back to the roots....dead & gone. Much of that early work was guided by what they were doing in NewYorkState. Since those early days, we have learned to farm Vinifera in NM & choose better sites so that the winter-kill issue is not as serious as once thought to be. There has been little new plantings of French Hybrids in NM since the late '80's, to my knowledge.
2. Gruet: Likes to portray themselves as a NM winery. When they were purchased by Precept Brands, the goal was to more than triple the case production of Gruet Sparkling Wine. There is no way that the amount of grape growing in NM could support that increase in production. Their website indicates they do source some grapes from the Engle Vnyd (now no longer owned/farmed by Gruet, but owned by NoisyWater Wnry), the LunaRossa Vnyd in Deming (who sells grapes to a large number of NM wineries), and the small Tamaya Vnyd, owned by the SantaAna Pueblo. But my sense is that the bulk of their wine is made in Precept-associated Wash State and the bubbles are simply put into the wine down in Albuquerque. I suspect length of time en-tirage is much less than when Gruet was actually a NM wnry.
Tom