A new Mexico winery breaks all the rules on bubbly

TWO unusual American sparkling wines debuted this month. The surprise? They were made by a winery near the Rio Grande in Albuquerque, New Mexico – land of adobe architecture, high deserts, and chiles-laden cuisine.

The bubblies are part of a recent boundary-breaking project, Vara Winery & Distillery. Its team of all-star winemakers, distillers and chefs create everything from wines to vermouth, gin and rum. A new Santa Fe tasting room, Vara Vinoteca, opens this summer.

Some of the wines and spirits succeed brilliantly. Others are works in progress. But all echo New Mexico’s centuries-deep wine history, which predates California’s by – this is not a misprint – 140 years. These bottlings and projects join the push to expand the innovation happening among the state’s 1,000 acres of vineyards and 60 wineries.

The local New Mexico wine story goes back to 1629, when Spanish missionaries smuggled in vines from Spain at a time when Spanish law forbade their export. These were the first European grapes planted in America, along the Camino Real. Known as the mission variety in the US, they’re called listan prieto in Spain.

By the 1880s, New Mexico had 3,000 acres of vineyards producing a million gallons of wine a year, but eventually the pest phylloxera, floods and Prohibition took a toll.

The modern comeback began in 1977, when investors from Burgundy, Germany and Italy’s Friuli region flocked in, drawn by inexpensive land and mountain-meets-desert landscapes.

Laurent Gruet, the winemaker behind Vara’s new sparkling wines, was one of those pioneers. He and his family launched their eponymous winery in 1987. “People said we were crazy when my family arrived from Champagne 40 years ago,” he says. “But the hot days, cool nights, high altitude and dry climate add up to a long growing season and weather that preserves the acidity in the grapes that sparkling wines need.” His crisp, inexpensive Gruet sparklers showed New Mexico’s bubbly potential. New York is now the Gruet winery’s top market.

After selling and leaving his family winery, Laurent Gruet teamed up with Vara for a new challenge: becoming a partner in the Vara winery in 2019, and a year later, the winemaker for its sparkling wines.

One of the winery’s unusual moves is experimenting with Old World/New World wines and blends at a time when other winemakers are focusing on single vineyard wines. The just-released Vara brut blend made by Laurent Gruet, for example, includes imported Spanish wine made from white macabeo grapes, used in Cava. “Macabeo,” he says, “gives the fizz more minerality.”

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The idea of sourcing unfinished wine from boutique producers in Spain, California and beyond for a New Mexico winery came from Vara co-founder, well-known importer Doug Diefenthaler, who saw it as a way to bridge the state’s common heritage. The Spain connection comes through wine merchant Christopher Cannan, who owns a winery in Priorat and has access to top Spanish producers.

To help him realize his vision, Diefenthaler sought out well-known California winemakers Bob Lindquist, founder of Qupé winery, and his wife, Louisa Sawyer Lindquist, who specializes in Spanish varietals under her organic Verdad Wine Cellars Central Coast label.

“It sounded like a blast,” Bob says. He sold Qupé in 2018, and the couple became partners in Vara and the winemakers for its still reds and whites.

For Vara’s Spanish wines and blends, Louisa tastes barrel samples in Spain and ships her picks in refrigerated containers to Texas, and then has trucks bring them to the winery.

In another unusual experiment, Vara uses heirloom New Mexico-grown listan prieto grapes for a round-textured, rosé-colored aperitivo wine labeled Viña Cardinal, as well as for a dessert wine in the works.

Most New Mexico wineries rely primarily on grapes grown in the state, and today, vineyards are centered in three AVAs: Middle Rio Grande Valley, Mimbres Valley and Mesilla Valley.

There’s a current rush to plant more vines, which is partly inspired by the New Mexico Vineyard Restoration Fund, created recently by the state legislature. It provides $2 million to plant and restore 400 acres of vineyards done in by lack of demand during Covid. For every vine, growers are reimbursed $5 to $7, which adds up to about a quarter to a third of the $20,000 per acre it costs farmers for vines, equipment, and labor.

“Vara has bought land for estate vineyards,” says Bob Lindquist, but he also continues to hunt down grapes from small plots belonging to independent growers.

“The most interesting conversation now,” says Christopher Goblet, the executive director of New Mexico Wine and Grape Growers Association, “is which are the best varieties to plant. The diversity of varietals – like sangiovese and teroldego – makes this growing region exciting.”

Laurent Gruet is high on pinot noir, chardonnay, and pinot meunier, which Vara plans to plant along with several Spanish grapes. “The biggest challenges,” he says, “are lack of water and early spring frost.”

So far Vara is one of the few New Mexico labels, like Gruet, that’s going nationwide. But experimentation is booming. Expect to taste more surprises from the state in the future. BLOOMBERG