July 4th Traditions

Happy Fourth of July! My favorite times on this holiday were when my Dad would read the Declaration of Independence, which he liked to do every year whether from our documents or from the New York Times. He loved to tell the story of how two signers and Presidents, lifelong friends John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on this day, 50 years after they signed the Declaration of Independence. Yes the hotdogs, the watermelon, steak on the grill, corn, and other sides are all part of the holiday but it is the history that Dad always shared that matters most, never more than this year. An American Historian by training, I wish I could talk to him about all that is going on in the world. While I can’t do that and hear a direct response, I look for signs in nature and find them. In the meantime, I raise a glass of American wine and try to be thankful for all that life has to offer in this very moment.

I like to celebrate the 4th with American Wine. The wine I am talking about is a sparkling wine from Gruet. Their sparklers made from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir are very inexpensive as sparklers go and are a great idea to bring to a party. The winery was started by a brother-sister team from France, Laurent and Nathalie Gruet. They choose New Mexico because of its climate and soils.

New Mexico has great diurnal temperature variation because of the altitude of many of the vineyards and the long hours of sunshine that the grapes get during the day followed by cool nights, the ideal combination for grape growing. Think mesas, brown and red earth tones, tumble weed, green shrubs, pueblos, adobe churches dotting the landscape, mountain peaks and rivers, chile. Remember those sand creations you made with different colored sand in the 6th grade? Kind of like that.

New Mexico has a very long history of grape growing with the first vines being planted by the Spanish in the 1600s for use in Catholic ceremonies and then by the Italians in the 1800s when the Jesuit priests came to the State. A huge flood in 1943 of the Rio Grande devastated vineyards that had already been hit by Prohibition in the 1929-1930. The once flourishing wine industry had to rebuild but it took many decades and it wasn’t until the 1970s that wineries started to open their doors again. Today the state has 60 wineries and tasting rooms.

The wineries can be found throughout the state from the border with Colorado to that of Texas. The wineries are broken up into those in Northern New Mexico, Central New Mexico and Southern New Mexico. Grapes tend to be international aka French, Spanish such as Tempranillo or Italian such as Vermentino, Aglianico and Nebbiolo.