Wine industry wonders why it can’t operate

The grapes might hang on their vines this year, ripening, rotting and falling to the ground as New Mexico wineries struggle to keep their 391-year-old industry alive.

Paolo D’Andrea is manager of New Mexico Vineyards in Deming, the largest grower/producer of grapes in the state.

“We supply grapes to many of the others,” he said. “We do 17 in New Mexico, three in Arizona and three in Texas.”

He said pcking season begins July 20, but several facilities have canceled their orders due to lack of ability to market their products.

Wineries and breweries have the same licensing, D’Andrea said, but while breweries can open, the wineries are shut down by the governor’s public-health order.

“The governor decided the wineries can’t open for tastings but allowed the breweries to do it,” he said. “The wine growers association is upset. We carry the same license. We feel like we’re not being treated equally to similar businesses.”

Many of the small wineries are dependent on tasting rooms and wine festivals, he said. So financially “they are not doing well at all.”

And because New Mexico Vineyards is an important Luna County employer, D’Andrea said, the county will suffer.

“Considering we are also located in Luna County and it is the highest unemployment county in New Mexico, if we have to close New Mexico Vineyards, many full-time employees will lose their jobs and that makes additional stress on the people in Deming, he said.

D’Andrea and his wife Sylvia own Luna Rosa Winery, which is closed on the Deming side but surviving in Las Cruces because their outlet is a restaurant. Unless something equitable happens soon, Paulo said he does not have much hope for New Mexico’s 2020 vintage. The wine cycle has been stopped in New Mexico.

He said the process of making wine is completely different than that of making beer.

“With wine, if you miss the harvest, you don’t have wine until the next year,” he said. “You have to take the opportunity when the grapes are ready, and it takes two or three years before the bottles will be ready.”

Christopher Goblet, executive director of the New Mexico Wine and Grape Growers Association, said there are three types of local producers – breweries, wineries and distilleries – and all are regulated in the same way and have the same licenses.

“You have Bosque Brewing operating two tasting rooms and you have wineries with same license who can’t open,” Goblet said. “It’s not based on best practices anywhere in the country, it’s just purely vindictive. The administration (governor’s office) has refused to communicate with us since June 15. It doesn’t make any sense when your industry is shuttered with no explanation.”

The only difference between wineries and breweries is that the brewers don’t grow anything, he said.

“If we can’t sell wine, then we don’t have room in our tanks for this year’s grapes,” he said. “Our cycle is based on mother nature. You will have an entire 2020 vintage that falls to the ground. It’s the domino effect.”

Several attempts by the Bulletin to contact Lt. Gov. Howie Morales and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham regarding this issue received no response.