New Mexico Wineries

Las Cruces Hotel Offers Up Promotional Rate for Wine Festival

There will be extraordinary tastes and entertainment throughout the weekend and special offers Las Cruces hotel, the weekend will be a good start to summer fun. Serious connoisseurs, wine lovers in general and those just looking for a relaxing weekend getaway will enjoy this tasteful event as New Mexico vintners step forward with some of their favorite and most appealing flavors. In addition to wine, a variety of specialty foods will add to the festival atmosphere along with the offering of arts and crafts; an hourly grape stomp contest; face painting and slides for the children and special University of Wine seminars on topics such as the history of wine in New Mexico and pairing wine with foods.

Joining in the festivities, the SpringHill Suites Las Cruces is offering a special package that includes two complimentary wine festival passes and a souvenir glass along with spacious suite accommodations and free breakfast buffet - all at rates starting as low as $109*. The SpringHill Suites welcomes festival goers with its warm and inviting all-suite accommodations that offer home-like amenities, 37-inch flat screen televisions with cable service, premium bedding packages, complimentary high-speed Internet access and they are among just a few Las Cruces hotels with a pool .Additional services at this hotel in New Mexico State include a whirlpool, fitness center on site, free use of fitness center off-site, laundry service, valet dry cleaning, newspaper delivery and express check-out.

Those planning to attend can reserve online Wine Festival at http://www.marriott.com/hotels/travel/lruss-springhill-suites-las-cruces/ package using the promotional code ZJ9 or by calling 1-800 -228 to 9290 for reservations.

* Rates are per room per night and is valid until 5/29/11 based on availability at time of booking.Offer not valid for groups of 10 rooms or more and can not be combined with any other offer or promotion.

About SpringHill Suites The SpringHill Suites Las Cruces Las Cruces is ideally located just off I-10 near area businesses and attractions, including New Mexico State University, Field of Dreams Sports Complex and Las Cruces Country Club. It stands on hotels near Las Cruces airport because it has a business center, full service and free parking on site. The hotel offers meeting and event rooms along with audio visual equipment, catering and event management services for business conferences or social gatherings.

ABQJournal Online » Cold Snap Effects Come To Fruition

cold spell in February and recent frigid temperatures wreaked havoc on the vineyards across the state, including Casa Rondeña Winery in Los Ranchos.

Casa Rondeña owner John Calvin said that the buds on the crops that produce the floral and fruity Serenade, the wine cellar sales junior, could not resist cold and frozen. And warmer weather between the cold snap and now caused the vine at harvest about three weeks earlier, leaving them vulnerable to cold bud, "he said.

“We produce 600 cases of that wine, which is around 7,000 bottles,” Calvin said about Serenade. “Now we have 20 percent of that.”

All wineries in New Mexico were affected in some way by cold weather this year, said Olivia DeCamp, executive director of the New Mexico Wine Growers Association.

“It’s definitely going to have an impact with New Mexico wineries trying to use New Mexico fruit,” she said. “There’s a potential that we will have to bring in grapes from out of state to produce wine.”

While Casa Rondeña’s Serenade supply took a hit, buyers won’t, Calvin insisted.

He said the winery won’t raise the price on Serenade regardless of the limited supply that exists this year. “We don’t want our loyal following paying a higher price,” he said.

“I’m fortunate the vines are healthy, and they didn’t take a beating,” Calvin said. “We’ll just do it again next year and pray that we don’t have an early bud break.”

Calvin’s vines also took a hard hit in the late 1980s.

He first planted the vines in 1984. However, it was a Cabernet Franc crop. Cabernet Franc is an award winner for Casa Rondeña.

It produced its first crop in 1987, but a cold December wiped out the entire vineyard.

“It was a heartbreaker for me,” Calvin said. “We put so much energy into it, and it was all gone.”

It is costly when the vines die, Calvin said. They must be dug up and replaced, and new vines take about three to four years to produce fruit, he said.

Other vineyards throughout the state are now going through what Calvin did in the late 1980s.

The area most affected was Tularosa, where harvests of wine were destroyed, said DeCamp.

Caves in the Deming / Lordsburg area lost between 30 to 35 percent of their crops, "she said.

"Most of the grapes we get from the state come from the Deming / Lordsburg area," she said.

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