Our Wines & Hard Ciders
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100% of Black Mesa wines and Hard Ciders are created here on the Estate in Velarde, New Mexico. They are made from 100% New Mexico grapes and local apples. Our grapes and apples are hand harvested and sorted to maintain the highest standard in the wine and cider making process.
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We grow six grape varieties in our Estate vineyards, and each year we purchase only the best hand-harvested grapes from select vineyards around New Mexico, to supplement our own varieties. The apples are sourced from local farmers in Alcalde, Velarde, Abiquiu, and Taos.
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Once the grapes are brought into the winery, we start the wine production by hand-sorting, de-stemming, and putting the grapes through the crusher. The white grape juice gets fermented with minimal oxygen exposure to keep our white wines nice and crisp. The red grapes ferment in half-ton bins, allowing us to experiment with a variety of yeast strains and different cap management strategies. Our red wines are handled delicately by hand-punching to extract the color and flavor from grapes, which is a technique that is rare in wine making today.
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We make our hard ciders in the same way we produce our white wine. An apple wine is created from the crushed apples, and we carbonate the cider the same way one carbonates beer, in a brite tank.
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We are a boutique winery. Our vintage wine productions range from 30-60 cases per wine. So if you find a wine that you love, don't hesitate to take it home with you!
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Since we produce over 30 different wines for you to enjoy, the small production of each one allows us to focus on high-quality wine making.
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Along with the over 30 wines we produce we produce five different flavors of our hard ciders.
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