New Year’s Day Champagne

Treat yourself to a bottle of Gruet, made by a French couple that has been living in New Mexico for decades, raising grapes with French stock.  New Mexico is the oldest wine-producing region in the United States, with winemaking dating to 1629 — predating California’s wine industry by 140 years.  Two Franciscan friars, García de Zúñiga and Antonio de Arteaga, are credited with planting the first vines at Senecú Pueblo, south of Socorro. According to legend, they smuggled the vines out of Spain in defiance of the Spanish Crown’s ban on exporting them to the New World. The grapes — known as Mission grapes — were grown primarily for sacramental wine.  By 1880, New Mexico was producing nearly one million gallons of wine per year. Then came floods, Prohibition, and the long dominance of the West Coast, all of which battered the industry for decades. Vines began returning in the 1970s, nurtured by families who believed in the desert’s potential.  Today the state benefits from a diverse terroir, with vineyard elevations ranging from 4,000 to over 9,000 feet. Ample sunshine and cool nights produce wines of surprising freshness and complexity across a wide range of varietals.