New Mexico Wine and Grape Growers Association

New Mexico Wine hosted their annual three-day education conference in santa fe for over 100 attendees. The conference brought in expert speakers to host workshops and interactive seminars that included data on vineyard research and winemaking techniques. New Mexico Wine also organized a trip for 20 winemakers to attend the unified Wine & Grape symposium in sacramento, the largest Wine symposium in north america. In an effort to elevate the presence of New Mexico wines on the national scale, the Association sent staff and representatives to New york and New orleans for consumer-facing events that exposed hundreds of Wine buyers and consumers to New Mexico products for the first time.

Wine festivals and promotions are important marketing and sales opportunities for our member wineries and expose the public to the variety of wines produced in New Mexico. Over 45,000 people in total attended these memorial day and labor day events. The Association built a New website that was more consumer focused and user friendly, providing New travel maps for self-guided Wine tours and interactive maps that provided greater visibility for member wineries.

New Mexico Wine's staff administered two significant grant programs that began in 2023. The New Mexico vine fund was authorized by the New Mexico legislature and provided arpa funds for the replanting of vineyards throughout New Mexico. Nine vineyard owners took advantage of the grant program, which reimbursed farmers for planting New vineyards across New Mexico. The other grant program, funded by the usda vapg, allows for New Mexico Wine to create a Wine education center to teach introduction to winemaking and function as a tasting room for direct to consumer sales. This New entity will operate separately from New Mexico Wine once it opens in 2024.