What a surprise!!

We recently visited Albuquerque, New Mexico. While driving around, we spotted a sign pointing to a winery. “Wineries? In New Mexico??” Surprised and skeptical, we followed the signs to Casa Rondeña Winery. We like wine adventures and figured this would be a good amusement. An hour later, we walked out stunned, making plans for a future wine tour of New Mexico, and the proud owners of a mixed case of four wines.

Karen, the really nice lady in the tasting room, poured us tastes of nine wines (still adjusting to the 5,000 foot elevation, we wisely opted to share our tastes). There wasn’t a dog in the bunch. Karen told us that about 95% of the grapes used in Casa Rondeña wines come from New Mexico. The winery grows its own Riesling and Gewürztraminer grapes. It buys most of the remaining grapes from growers in southern New Mexico. The lower elevations and higher temps in the southern part of the state allow a variety of red grapes to grow, including Tempranillo, a tasty Spanish grape typically used for blending. It is slowly becoming more popular in the United States.

The wines we came home with were:

• 2004 Sangiovese, a red that was very light and bright and fruity ($15).



• 2005 Clarion, a red wine which was a blend of Syrah, Tempranillo and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes. It was unlike anything we’ve tried before, although it did have the earthiness and spice of Tempranillo ($28).



• 2004 Animante Port made from Cabernet Sauvignon grapes that was a ruby port of sweet cherries and chocolate ($35).



• 2006 Viognier ($20), our absolute favorite of the bunch. It was probably the best Viognier we have ever tasted. Viogniers - a white wine - typically smell fruity and sweet and then have a contrasting sharp, citric flavor. The Casa Rondeña Viognier’s nose and taste were more harmonious. It had an apricot and pineapple nose with a sweeter, crisp, fruity, yet still lightly acidic taste to complement it.

Casa Rondeña Winery has only been around since 1995 and produces just 6,000 cases of wine per year. For comparison, in 2006, Robert Mondavi produced approximately 9 million cases. In other words, Casa Rondeña is pretty small potatoes…or grapes. And they just started selling wines outside of Albuquerque, branching out all the way to Santa Fe and Taos. Which is to say, they aren’t much into distribution. The good news, though, is that they will ship. At first glance, their prices seemed high. After tasting their wines, we think we got a bargain and plan to bookmark their website for future purchases. New Mexico hints at having fabulous wines and enough wineries to consider a wine tour – who knew? (See New Mexico Wine Country for more info.)