After a roughly 132-year slump, a new training program at Northern New Mexico College may help boost the grape-growing and wine-making industries of northern New Mexico.
Funding for the program came from a partnership with the Viticulture Enology Science and Technology Alliance, or VESTA, which Northern contracted to be its newest partner institution, Dean of Career Technical Education, Community and Workforce Development Camille Bustamante said.
The organization, based at Missouri State University, partners with 17 other universities and (community colleges) to provide viticulture and enology training, and is a National Science Foundation-funded advanced technological education program.
Bustamante said the program grew out of a request by the Northern New Mexico Micro Grape Growers Association to provide workforce training for the area. According to Tim Martinez, a grape grower and president of the Association, they were looking for someone to provide formal education on growing grapes, and through research found the Alliance.
Martinez called the upcoming program a new beginning for grape growers in Northern New Mexico. Grower associations around the state are excited for the program to begin, he said.
“It’s immense for us who have never grown grapes in our area,” Martinez said. “Most of the people who grow anything around here are the chile growers, or a few apples, or some alfalfa.”
Martinez said many people in the area have been abandoning agriculture because it’s a time consuming, expensive, and not very profitable business. Yet, the profit margins are substantial for growing grapes. The crop is highly sought and it would be huge to grow the industry in Northern New Mexico, he said.
However, knowledge is a hurdle.
“We know a lot about growing apples, a lot about growing peaches and chile and corn, but growing grapes is something different,” he said. “If you don’t know very much about growing grapes, then you’re not going to succeed.”
Michele Padberg, marketing and publicity director for Vivác Winery, near Dixon, and wife of vintner Jesse Padberg, said she has found as their company grows it is sometimes difficult to hire people who have experience in or a passion for growing grapes and making wine.
Currently, the bulk of the wine-making and vineyard maintenance work for the winery is handled by brothers Chris and Jesse Padberg. However, as they continue to expand, their needs will increase. Having a workforce with training and experience in the process would be a huge asset, she said.
“If there was someone who had viticulture experience from this program, that we could say, ‘This is how we want the vines pruned,” we could put that person in charge of the workforce in the vineyard to expedite that for us so we could focus on other things,” Michele Padberg said. “That would just aid in our growth, and I think anyone in the industry would agree with that.”
Need more grapes
Vivác currently grows 15 percent of its own grapes. The remainder is imported from a large vineyard in southern New Mexico. Michele Padberg said as local vineyards improve and expand, they would look at buying more from local growers.
Growing grapes can be a tricky project in Northern New Mexico. Bustamante said the elevation creates issues for growers.
According to Michele Padberg, her winery’s vineyards sit at around 6,000 feet above sea-level, which is the highest altitude grapes can grow in. This brings with it climate problems.
“With the higher altitude, you’re looking at growing grapes through winter, because the grape vine can’t die completely back every year, or you’re not getting any further down the road,” she said.
A grape vine needs at least three years to mature, and it has to be getting its roots deeper and growing stronger in that time, she said.
Because of this issue, Martinez said the trick is to find which grapes can grow best in the area, and the expense of starting a vineyard makes training like this vital.
“It’s important that you have this education piece because without it, you spin your wheels and you spend a lot of money,” Martinez said.
Michele Padberg said they do what they can to work with and encourage local growers. Jesse Padberg sits on the Association’s board. She said they hope to get the Northern Embudo Valley approved as an official American Viticulture Area to encourage the local industry and bring tourism to the area.
“It’s a wonderful budding community of people relying on each other,” she said.
Good fit
New Mexico State University viticulture specialist Bernd Maier said he helped make the first contact between Northern and the Association once the Association decided to work with the Alliance.
Maier said there was a more natural fit between the Alliance and Northern, rather than his own university, because the Alliance generally works with two-year colleges, while New Mexico State is more research-focused.
The program will help develop a more qualified local workforce for Northern New Mexico’s wine industry, Bustamante said.
“One thing that was stated was when they need help in the field, they have to hire folks from northern California or elsewhere,” she said. “This will help us give local people skills to work in the vineyards and keep land productive, so it’s very consistent with the values of the Sostenga Center.”
Maier also believes the training to be a boon to the area.
“I think bringing VESTA into Northern New Mexico, with Northern New Mexico College, will really enhance the viticulture industry in that area of the state as well as afford an opportunity for all people here in New Mexico to get a formal education in viticulture and enology,” he said.
If the training encourages more local farmers to grow grapes, Michele Padberg said the area’s position as a viticulture region would be strengthened and help support the budding industry.
“We’re all looking at increasing the wine industry in New Mexico,” she said. “And everything we can do to employ locals, to encourage this program to expand, all of that just comes back to our communities.”
Much of the training will be online, with some local classes and lab requirements at local vineyards, Bustamante said. Instructors for the program will come from all over the country.
Bustamante said she expects classes to start in the August 2013.
This is the first program of its kind in New Mexico, Maier said. Because of this, Martinez said Northern would be the training ground for the entire state. Partnering with the Alliance will give them access to training and expertise that can help them find the best varieties to grow in the area’s unique climate.
New Mexico was once the biggest grape-growing region in the United States, Martinez said.
The crop went into sharp decline after 1880, Maier said. Since the 1970s, growers in the area have been trying to reclaim the institutional knowledge lost.
Michele Padberg said natural disasters like flood and man-made events like alcohol prohibition helped to stamp out the industry. However, as it struggled through the 1970s, it focused on making wines that the average American palate was looking for. When tastes changed, New Mexican wine makers were slow to evolve.
Now people can stop at any winery around the state and find a wine they like, which is an experience tourists didn’t have as little as 10 years ago, she said.
“You can see this marked jump forward in the industry as a whole, and it’s really incredible to see,” she said. “And everybody is working really hard to better the reputation of New Mexico wines”