What is M.L. and why is it my wine?

M.L. is short for a process called Malolactic Fermentation and is not, in-fact, a fermentation at all. In this process malic acid is eaten by bacteria and converted to lactic acid. Lactic acid is the main acid found in dairy products and lends a creamier flavor and mouthfeel to the wine. Descriptors such as buttery and creamy are tell tale signs that a wine has undergone malolactic fermentation. Another byproduct of the the process is CO2, which is why people incorrectly called it a ‘fermentation,’ and the name just stuck. The process also makes a wine more complex. Before M.L.F. a wine has up to 8,000 chemical compounds that make up its bouquet, afterward it has about 10,000. -Cheers from the Vivác Winery Family!

World Class Flamenco @ Vivác Winery

Sunday August 28th at 4:30pm, join us at Vivác Winery Tasting room for a once in a life time opportunity to see some of the best in flamenco & poetry. Happy Hour Drink Specials & hor d'oeuvres, don't miss it!

Flamenca expert Susannah Clavileja Garrett will recite Lorca while dancing. She performs widely in New Mexico & studied with the famed Maria Benitez, (she is also granddaughter of the famous Pat Garrett). Guitarist El Niño David, stage name of David Briggs, studied flamenco in Spain & teaches Spanish at UNM & CNM. Guitarist & Flamenca are both from Santa Fe & have performed with Gary Brower at the National Hispanic Cultural Center, Teatro Paraguas Studio Theater in Santa Fe, the Sunflower Festival in Mountainair, the Church of Beethoven in Albuquerque, the Duende Poetry Series in Placitas, NM & other venues. Flameca Cantileja recites Lorca while dancing. Poet Gary Brower is editor and publisher of The MalPais Review, New Mexico' -Cheers from the Vivác Winery Family!

Rafting the Chama with Vivác!

Only 12 spots available! This is an incredible opportunity to have an adverture of a life time with gourmet meals, wine maker dinners & "NM River Adventures" does all the work! -Cheers from the Vivác Winery Family!

Happy Hour

Happy Hour Season is back! That's right, your favorite community winery is back in full swing with live bands EVERY Saturday afternoon from 4-7pm! Drink specials and even a fun filled raffle for our wonderful guests to enjoy free gifts. How does it work? Simple, you buy a drink, you enter the raffle, you buy another drink you enter again, you buy a 3rd drink? You make sure you have a DD and then you enter AGAIN! At the end of the evening you see who the winner is. Prizes include free glasses of wine, free bottles of wine, free corkscrews, hats, shirts, chocolates or any of the fun books and games we have in the tasting room! Did you know we now have beauty products? A new wine and chocolate pairing menu? "Friends of Vivác" wine program for an offering of wines we don't produce ourselves like sweet wines, sparkling wines and wines under $10? New and exciting items await you and your family at Vivác Winery. Happy Hour is held on our beautiful patio overlooking our newest vineyard addition and offers more seats and drink specials each week. There really isn't a reason to miss one! -Cheers from the Vivác Winery Family!

Introducing "Friends of Vivác"

New to Vivác Tasting Room, sweet wines, sparkling wines & wines under $10! We are proud to offer the styles of wine you may be looking for that we at Vivác do not produce. We have hand selected the best of these styles that our respected wine maker friends make in New Mexico. They are: GRUET WINERY: "United States Wine Producer of the Year" by The International Wine & Sprits Competition for 2010, the Gruet family has helped our Vivác Winery wine-makers with invaluable advice as we started our own winery & we continue to call them friends today. Gruet Winery makes some of the best sparklers in the world. They stem from "Gruet et Fils" Champagne house in France & all of their sparklers are Methode Champenoise. BRUT: notes of buttered popcorn & green apple, this wine has great acidity & fine mousse. Serve chilled. ROSE: notes of Strawberry & toasted almonds, this wine has round acidity & fine mousse. Serve chilled. RED HOT MAMA WINES Created by Vivác's team of certified Sommeliers & designed in a 1950's Rock-a-Billy style who's art is by the famous Nelson Rhodes (Disney animator & inventor of the 'Tasmanian Devil'), Red Hot Mama Wines are fun, flirty & a bit risqué but always a great value! These wines are not made by Vivác, but the blend is produced & marketed by the owners. RED HOT MAMA: If you are looking for a great wine with lots of "character and Sass", this wine shows full fruit, round acidity & light tannin. This Cabernet Sauvignon heavy blend is great with Pizza & BBQ BUXOM BLONDE: A Sauvignon Blanc blend showing mellon flavors, nice acidity & fruity over tones, fun & flirty with full figured fruit & easy to drink! Serve Chilled. Great with Cheeses & lighter meats. LUNA ROSSA Paolo D'Andrea is a 4th generation wine-maker from Friuli, Italy with a degree in Viticulture. Paolo has worked the vineyards of Deming's "NM Vineyards Inc" since 1986 selling us our grapes, working closely with us to find interesting varietals to work with & picking at our specified levels of acid & sugar, this is a relationship that is very important & personal. Luna Rossa is his personal winery. GEWURZTRAMINER: notes of honey & blossoms, this semi-sweet wine has round palate & low acid. PRIMO DULCE: This red blend has notes of dark ripe fruit & floral hints. A semi-sweet wine with round acidity & light tannins. -Cheers from the Vivác Winery Family!

wine 101

How is wine made? It starts with the grapes in the vineyard, this can get very detailed, but for simplicity sake, lets leave that to: when the acid levels and the sugar levels are right, you pick the grapes. The grapes are taken to the winery, and in Vivác's winery, hand sorted (removing any poor grapes and leaves). The grapes are then sent through the crusher/destemmer (which breaks open the berries and separates it from the stem) and, if they are white grapes, sent to the presses. At Vivác, these are 2 traditional basket, hand presses. The pulp is removed from the juice and white wines sit in temperature controlled stainless steel tanks immediately to ferment. Red wines ferment with the skins and seeds in temperature controlled stainless steel tanks for 9-12 days (depending on the varietal). During fermentation the "cap" of skins and seeds is "punched down" in an effort to keep the juice in contact with the skins and seeds, drawing color and tannin from them. The red wine is then pressed and sent to oak barrels, we believe in 100% French Oak barriques at Vivác because of the sweet spices they release into the wine, think aromas of caramel, vanilla, cinnamon or butterscotch. Wines spend time in both new and old oak barrels prior to bottling. The bottle aging is important so that the wine can again become an integrated experience when you drink it. It is the details and the science behind each of these steps that differentiate one winery from another, imagine a city or town of restaurants with excellent chefs, each one might be serving a chicken dish and a stake dish, but none of them will taste the exact same. Your job as the consumer is to find the wine-maker or "chef" that suits your palate. -Cheers from the Vivác Winery Family!

Vivác Winery Tasting Room & Gallery

Opened in November of 2003 and located at the corner of Highway 75 (Dixon) and Highway 68 (between Taos and Santa Fe), this 900-square-foot adobe building was built by Jesse and Chris themselves. With vaulted ceilings and a striking flagstone bar, the tasting room offers guests a chance to taste impressive Vivác wines. Guests can shop for wine gifts (corkscrews in every budget, a library of wine education books, wine racks, games, logo shirts, Riedel logo glasses, and much more) and enjoy the famous handmade chocolates, contemporary jewelry, and exquisite art (paintings, photography, and blown glass). The Padbergs' thirst for knowledge is accompanied by a desire to share that information, including an intensive training and testing schedule for staff. Each tasting room attendant is required to not only know about the Vivác wines, but also about the process of growing grapes, winemaking, and general knowledge about wines around the world. This training is in an effort to create a knowledgeable staff ready to help each customer to their fullest. Outside, the rock-framed flowerbeds welcome visitors and draw them along flagstones paths into the walled retreat of the patio. The views are breath-taking, one toward the river and mountains gazing over the vineyard, and the other of the massive sandstone mountain, Barrancos Blancos, which is so artfully depicted on the signature Vivác label. The tasting room is open 7 days a week all year long, with free Wi-Fi and a happy-hour season (from spring through fall) that attracts locals and tourists alike to the live-music Saturdays and drink specials, making it truly a community winery. -Cheers from the Vivác Winery Family!