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Our Vineyard
The Harvest
The harvest begins in mid-August and lasts through the end of September.
The grapes are harvested by a high-tech grape harvester, and on rare
occasions are hand-picked from the vine. The grapes arrive by the
truckload and are dumped into the grape hopper and conveyed into the
de-stemmer. Inside the de-stemmer, the clusters of grapes are separated
from the stems when they are struck by paddles. The loose grapes fall down
into the crusher which lightly breaks the skin of the grape for easier
pressing. From here the grapes are sent into the winery to be pressed if
they are white grapes, and for red grapes, they Our Winery
Our St. Clair Tasting Rooms
and Bistros Our tasting rooms, located in Deming, Las Cruces and Albuquerque are open for wine tasting 7 days a week. Our tasting rooms offer wine flights daily featuring New Mexico's finest wines. Be our guest for lunch or dinner at our Albuquerque or Las Cruces Bistro locations, where you will be greeted with a relaxing atmosphere and opportunity to taste our wide array of New Mexico wines paired with epicurean style fare. At all locations, you will find a friendly, knowledgeable staff that can suggest ideal pairings for your next dinner or get-together. Browse our extensive gift gallery, and select a bottle or two of award-winning wine to take home! Whether for an intimate meeting, business lunch or private event, our locations are available to assure a memorable, unique experience. |
Our
vineyard is located in the Pyramid Valley just east of Lordsburg, New Mexico and sits at an
elevation of just over 4500'. The hot, sunny days and cool, enchanting
evenings often differ in temperature by 30 to 40 degrees or more. The soil
is sandy, loamy, and nutrient rich with excellent drainage, which makes
the vines less susceptible to root rot and other diseases. It is this
terroir that makes it possible to grow the best grapes in New Mexico. Our
Viticulturalist, Emmanuel Lescombes, manages the day-to-day operations of
the vineyard, which produces between 7 and 10 tons per acre on average. We
currently have 180 acres cultivated with varietals that include Cabernet
Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Zinfandel, Syrah, Muscat, Malvasia
Bianca, and many others. Our vines are planted in a specific spacing of
8'X5' which allows over 1000 vines per acre, as well as allows for proper
sunlight and watering. We also carefully prune the vines each year during
the dormant months to ensure the best possible growth. We are currently in
the process of expanding our vineyards and plan to have over 220 acres by
the end of the year.
are sent for fermentation in stainless steel tanks. The partially crushed
white grapes are pumped in from the destemmer to twin 20 ton Bucher
presses. Red grapes will not be pressed for 3 to 15 days after primary
fermentation. Our pneumatic press uses a bladder that fills with air to
press the grapes against the bottom of the chamber. The pressure exerted
is a gentle 30 psi. At this pressure, the skin of the grapes will not be
pressed too hard, which would cause the resulting wine to have an off
taste and overly tannic properties. The juice runs through grids inside
the chamber and into a pipe to be pumped directly to a storage tank. It
takes approximately 2 to 3 hours to extract the juice from 20 tons of
grapes. Juice from 20 tons of grapes is approximately 3,600 gallons. The
grape skins and seeds are emptied to the hopper under the presses, and is
conveyed outside, where it will be recycled as mulch or animal feed.
Our
winery is nestled in the heart of the Mimbres Valley in Deming, located in
southwest New Mexico, America's oldest wine producing region. We have
continuously been rated in the top 100 largest wineries in the United
States for over the past 20 years. The winery is situated on 15 acres and
has a 500,000 gallon capacity. Our winery is composed of over 50 tanks,
each up to 16,200 gallons in capacity. Many of the tanks are equipped with
computer controlled temperature jackets. An even temperature during
fermentation and maturation ensure a consistently high quality product.
After aging in stainless steel tanks, many red wines are matured in oak
barrels to smooth out its' tannins. Each oak barrel holds approximately 60
gallons, and is composed of either American or French Oak. The wine must
remain in barrel anywhere between 3 months to 2 years. and each barrel
costs anywhere from $300 to $900 and last 3 to 5 years. When the wine is
ready to bottle, it must be refiltered to ensure that it is sterile. If
any bacteria or yeast are left in the bottle, the wine might referment if
there is any sugar left in the wine, otherwise, it will turn to vinegar.
Our plate filter removes all particles larger than .35 microns (1 micron
is 1/1000 of a millimeter). We also use a secondary filter, a cartridge
filter, to be absolutely sure that all particles have been removed.
Finally, the wine is ready to be bottled! Our bottling capacity peaks at
over 200,000 cases annually, and we are the only winery in the state which
offers contract processing and bottling for other wineries in New Mexico,
Texas and Arizona. The bottling line is made up of many different pieces
of equipment. First the bottles go through a bottle rinser which pressure
sprays water into the bottles to ensure they are perfectly clean. Next,
the bottles are filled with wine. The wine is pumped from it's holding
tank behind the bottling line into the filler, which fills the bottles
with exactly the right amount of wine. Then, the bottle is conveyed to the
corker, which takes each bottle, one-by-one, compresses a cork and inserts
it into the bottle. Next a rinser cleans off any residue on the outside of
the bottle, and then, the bottles are dried by warm air so that the labels
can be applied. Finally the bottles enter our packaging machine, which
places a capsule on the top of the bottle and applies pressure to tighten
it to protect the cork, and automatically labels the bottles as they exit
the machine. Lastly, the bottles are taken off the line and packed into
cases and stacked onto pallets to be stored in our climate controlled
warehouse. 