Three New Mexico wineries are joining together to open a tasting room wine bar at 145 Central Park Square in downtown Los Alamos. The ambiance will be “classy but comfortable” with an intimate area with cozy arm chairs, a bar area and an area with tables and chairs.
The new wine bar will offer visitors an opportunity to taste world class wines by the glass or bottle. There will not be a kitchen but small plates featuring a variety of hors d’oeuvres will be available.
Owners Jim Fish of Anasazi Fields Winery, Tony Black of Black’s Smuggler Winery and Michele and Jesse Padberg of Vivác Winery answered an interest seeking letter sent to wineries across the state from the Los Alamos Commerce and Development Corporation.
“They approached us,” Fish said.
Award-winning winemaker Tony Fox explained that a letter went out to all the wineries in the state.
“Five responded and three are in,” he said. “I’m a champion of this project … this will be a place to bring a friend to chat and buy a glass of wine.”
Black is the lead on this venture as his winery is applying for the state license to operate the tasting room in Los Alamos.
The new facility will provide space for private events such as private wine tasting seminars, wine tasting parties and dinners, anniversary and birthday celebrations, bridal luncheons, special brunches, lectures and before and after date nights.
“We’ll have poetry readings, wine classes, science lectures, meet the winemakers and more,” Michele Padberg said. “We really want this to be a community space.”
She describes the new tasting room wine bar as a “unique option” for Los Alamos as well as a great place for tourists who want to taste New Mexico wine, adding that the best tourist souvenir is a bottle of New Mexico wine.
Tasting will be available by flight, by glass and sales by bottle or case. Fish said the community is going to be quite surprised at the quality of the wine that will be available from the three wineries.
“These wines will stand up to the best California and the best French wines,” Fish said, after the winery owners sampled each other’s wine.
Although competitors, the partners in the Los Alamos wine room clearly enjoy one another’s company and expressed appreciation for one another’s wine.
“We tasted all of our wines side by side and each one is so different that there is something absolutely perfect for anyone who comes in,” Michele Padberg said.
Black said there is good camaraderie and chemistry between the owners.
“We can feed off each other with ideas,” Black said.
The new space does not have a full restaurant.
“We’ll be looking to local food providers to partner with on catering for special events,” Fish said.
This will be a community space where people can come in and enjoy a snack lunch, by a glass of wine, Padberg said.
Tony Fox is championing the new venture and credited Central Park Square owner Philip Kunsberg and Scot Randall of the LACDC.
“LACDC was an important catalyst and without them and Philip, it would not be possible to have a space for the wine room like this in downtown Los Alamos,” Fox said.
About the Wineries:
Anasazi Fields Winery sits on the western edge of the old village of Placitas, between Albuquerque and Santa Fe. Orchards and vineyards surrounding the winery are watered by a spring-fed irrigation system that dates back over 1,000 years to a time when the Anasazi people farmed the Placitas Valley. Nearby are petroglyphs, which have been reproduced on Anasazi Fields’ wine labels. Visit http://www.anasazifieldswinery.com.
The Black Smuggler Winery is a small boutique winery 18 miles to the northeast of the Ladron (Thief) Mountains in Bosque. Notorious for being a “smuggler’s refuge,” these mountains have served as a hideout for bandits and thieves since the 18th century. Local folklore is full of tales of these desolate, rugged mountains, of dangerous men, outlaw adventures, and of treasures stashed in mysterious caves. It is these “Thief Mountains” that have inspired the Black’s Smuggler Winery name. Visit http://www.blackssmugglerwinery.com.
Vivác Winery in Dixon is the creation of brothers Jesse and Chris Padberg, along with their wives, Michele and Liliana Padberg, respectively. In November of 1998 the brothers embarked on a new mission ‘to make the best wine possible and have a good time doing it!’ This meant professionally crafted, world-ranked, dry red wines-a first for New Mexico. They found inspiration in France and Italy, and were especially drawn in by the Old World wine culture, where winemaking is a dance between art and science. Though extensive travel around the world and mentorships with other local winemakers, they learned about the wine business in general and more specifically about the wine business in Northern New Mexico. Visit http://vivacwinery.com
The owners hope to open the wine room in June and hold a community-wide grand opening event in mid-July. The wine room will hold something less than 100 people and initially will be open noon to 8 p.m., Wednesday through Sunday, Fox said. The public will dictate the hours as time goes on.
The owners also would like the public to help name the new wine room by taking a survey through May 11 in the Los Alamos Daily Post by clicking
here.
Suggested names include:
- Mingle
- Uncorked
- The Wine Room of Los Alamos
- Wine Theorem
- Win3 (with the 3 backwards)
- Other