Casa Ronde�a has arguably the most beautiful grounds of any New Mexico winery. The expansive location on Chavez Road in Los Ranchos de Albuquerque has buildings done in the Spanish style amidst rows of vines. The green tile roofs above pink and beige adobe and brick walls embrace the vineyards and offer a welcoming release from the constant sun. The reflecting pool invites reflection and contemplation as one sips a Viognier and indulges in tapas.

The 1629 Club, named after the date that began New Mexico's wine industry, holds musical events and specialty dinners paired to the wines. John Calvin, proprietor of the winery, has become the pre-eminent patron of the arts in Central New Mexico. I've attended many concerts held on the grounds, and all have been made more pleasurable by the excellent wines.

My personal favorite is the 1629 Founder's Reserve, a blend of Tempranillo, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon that just gets better sip after sip. The 2008 Meritage blend is a Bordeaux style wine comprised of Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and a dash of Petit Verdot. Nearly half of this blend is Merlot making this more a right bank style.

The 2011 Viognier is very popular and one of the state's best. This is a grape that does extremely well here as does Riesling, which is the primary grape in the 2011 Casa Ronde�a Serenade, enhanced with the spicy sweetness of Gew�rztraminer. The 2010 Rose is a bracing wine made with the Cabernet Franc grape and another perfect sipper while relaxing in the gardens.

After dinner one can enjoy the 2006 Animante port, which has dessert all wrapped up in the bottle; adding chocolate almost seems like an over-abundance of decadence. But I must confess, I've weakened and done just that.

Come to Casa Ronde�a for the wine, the food, the experience of being in some lush part of Espana and the art. You will not be disappointed.

Tip of the Month: Proper Wine Storage - Red Wines 

The proper way to store wine, and red wine in particular, is in a wine cellar. Before one calls "foul" let me add that all the requirements for proper storage are found in the typical wine cellar. So what are those requirements? First, not to keep you in the dark, is the lack of light in a wine cellar. Wine is very susceptible to UV light, so keeping a bottle of wine on the kitchen counter, particularly with overhead fluorescent lights that emit significant amounts of UV is a very bad idea. Most red wine is placed in dark glass to aid in reducing the impact of light. Wine is also affected by vibration, so keeping it on a running clothes washer is also a very bad idea, particularly when it vibrates off the washer and crashes. OK, I'm assuming this wasn't the first place you thought to place your wine.

The most significant factor, however, and the most challenging to meet
is keeping wine at the proper storage temperature. Fluctuations in temperature are also bad, which is another reason why a constant temperature is desirable. The storage value of 55 degrees F is
also the typical temperature within a cave as wine was historically kept before modern refrigeration. If a wine maker states his wine will age for 5 years from the vintage date, the assumption is that it will be stored at
55 degrees.

What impact will a higher storage temperature have on red wine? Analysis by chemist Alexander J Pandel Ph.D suggests that increasing the range to 59 degrees will increase the aging by a factor of 1.2 to 1.5 based on low to high energy barriers within the wine. The chemistry of this I will not subject you to. A range up to 73 degrees will increase this to 2.1 to 8. In other words a worst case scenario of keeping the wine at room temperature (73 degrees ) will mean it must be consumed within eight months, rather than the five years in our example. Going up to 91 degrees will increase that value to over 56 times! This will effectively cook the wine in a very short period of time and induce other undesirable chemical reactions in the wine. Better you should keep it in the fridge (41 degrees) than subject it to an overheated house, or heaven forbid a garage in summer!

Finally, if the wine uses a conventional cork, it should be laid down if it won't be consumed within a week to keep the cork from drying out. Very low humidity, which dries out a cork more quickly, can also be a problem as it most certainly will be in New Mexico for most of the year.

The better the wine the more the wine buyer should invest in keeping it cool, somewhat moist and in the dark until it is ready to be served.

"Wines of Enchantment the Centennial Edition"