Purchase and Print Tickets Online!

You can now purchase tickets from our secure online storefront, and print them at your convenience. Have a peace of mind knowing that your outing will be hassle-free. Just bring your ticket(s) to the gate, present your ID, and then make way to the ultimate wine tasting experience in New Mexico!

Here’s how it works:
Go to to our secure online shop and purchase however many tickets you need for your party, and a profile/account will be created you for. After a successful transaction, you can login to your profile/account and print your ticket(s) at anytime. Bring your ticket(s) to the gate where it will be scanned for verification and then you can enjoy the New Mexico Wine Festival at Bernalillo!

One ticket represents one admission to the festival. You cannot print a ticket multiple times for multiple admissions. If you plan to attend the wine festival 2 days, then you must purchase 2 tickets, and so on.

Online Ticket Prices
Ticket and merchandise purchases at the online store are not taxable if you live in New Mexico or not.

Adult Admission $11.00 (Includes commemorative wine glass)
Youth Admission (13-20 years) $5.50
Child Admission (0-12 years): $0.50

Welcome to the New Mexico Wine Festival at Bernalillo!

The New Mexico Wine Festival at Bernalillo wraps up the summer with the premier
wine festival of the southwest! Just north of Albuquerque, the historic town of Bernalillo
is host to the biggest wine festival in the state. Most of all the New Mexico wineries will
be there, giving their customers a rare opportunity to taste and purchase New Mexico
wines at their best. Lots of great music, arts and crafts, and those summer foods we all
love make a perfect backdrop for wine, wine, wine!

21st ANNUAL NEW MEXICO WINE FESTIVAL VENDOR APPLICATION (pdf)

21st ANNUAL NEW MEXICO WINE FESTIVAL COMMEMORATIVE POSTER COMPETITION (pdf)

Contacts

Maria Rinaldi, Executive Director
(505) 867-3311
executive.director@newmexicowinefestival.com

Rich Young, Web Administrator
admin@newmexicowinefestival.com

Please send general inquiries to:
info@newmexicowinefestival.com

Commemorative Poster

Entitled: "Vino Caliente"
Artist: Darryl Willison

NM WINE FESTIVAL COMMEMORATIVE POSTER COMPETITION Bernalillo, NM –Mayor Patricia A. Chávez and the Executive Board of the New Mexico Wine Festival at Bernalillo has made the announcement that “Vino Caliente” by Bernalillo artist Darry Willison has been selected as the commemorative poster art for the 2007 event.  “Vino Caliente” was one of seven submissions in this year’s poster competition.  The image, painted in an illustrative style, depicts a Spanish dancer in colorful traditional dress stomping grapes to the music of a caballero musician in the back ground.  “I wanted to reflect the rich and colorful history of New Mexico and it’s culture’” says the artist.  “I am capturing the delight of the dancer as she celebrates the full body and richness of the land and its gifts that surround her,” he continues. “In my imagination, such a celebration takes place exclusively here in Bernalillo.”

Known to the world at “America’s Drawing Cowboy” and the nation’s only western contemporary pop artist, Darryl Willison is re-creating the wild west of “yesteryear” today.  His fiery, bold and whimsical approach to his subject matter sets him and his art apart from the rest of the artist community.  A career artist, Darryl is represented by thirteen galleries across the United States and his work is held in collections world-wide. He is also co-owner of Art Gallery 66! located on Historic Route 66 in Bernalillo in an adobe building that was a gas station during the hey-day of the highway. “This image represents the festivity of the experience of wine,” commented Maria Rinaldi, Executive Director of the New Mexico Wine Festival.  “It’s playful and great “poster art” she continued. “Vino Caliente” is number twenty in the New Mexico Wine Festival poster commemorative collection that boasts such names as RC Gorman, Betty Sabo, Paul Sanchez, David Chavez, Marcellus Medina and Rudi Klimpert The poster will go on sale in early July for $10.00.  A limited edition of 200 posters with the artist’s signature will be sold for $20.00 at the festival and at poster signing events to be announced prior to the festival.    The Town of Bernalillo MainStreet Association sponsors the New Mexico Wine Festival as an economic and tourism development project.  The American Bus Association has named the event a “Top 100 Event in North America”. View poster signing events. View commemorative posters from previous wine festivals.

Entertainment Schedule

Master of Ceremonies: Charlie Z
Mistress of Ceremonies: Lisa Delgado

Click on a date to learn more!

Saturday, September 1, 2007

Sunday, September 2, 2007

Monday, September 3, 2007

A Glimpse of Bernalillo History

The La Salle Christian Brothers, a Catholic teaching order, came to Bernalillo in 1872
at the behest of Archbishop Lamy to establish a high school.  The St. Nicholas School For
Boys and a farm were built across from Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church on lands
donated by the prominent Perea family.

As a means of funding the school, the Christian Brothers operated the La Salle Ranch and in 1883, they opened the La France Winery.  In 1887, the Christian Brothers traveled to California to seeking hardier grape varieties than those that had been introduced into the Rio Grande Valley by early European settlers in the 1600’s.  They returned with grapevine cuttings of Black Malvoise, Malbec, Zinfandel, Mataro, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petite Pino, and Cohasselas Fountainbleu.

Unlike wineries of other Catholic Orders, the Christian Brothers did not make wine themselves.  In 1917 they hired Lois Gros, of a French wine-making family in Bernalillo, who produced over 10,000 gallons of wine per year until 1920. In 1921 an Italian wine maker from Tuscany by the name of Giovanni Giorgio Rinaldi leased the La France Winery. He operated the winery throughout the prohibition era until 1933.  The La France Winery was the only winery in New Mexico allowed to remain open during prohibition as Archbishop of Santa Fe Albert Daguer had arranged to have this winery produce sacramental wine for all of the Catholic churches in the state.

Rinaldi was a progressive wine grower, and in the early 1920’s he enlisted the help of the agricultural staff of New Mexico A&M College, now New Mexico State University, in Las Cruces, New Mexico.  With their assistance, he experimented with several types of grapes and grape growing styles and significantly increased production.  Zinfandel in a Burgundy style, still remembered by elder Bernalillo residents, was a result of such experimentation.

The Bernalillo winery predates the famous California Christian Brothers Winery in Napa Valley, which in the 1950’s indicated some interest in a grape brandy produced in Bernalillo that had developed a reputation for its quality.  The Christian Brothers closed the winery in 1948 and sold the entire La Salle Ranch.

Though commercial wines have not been produced in Bernalillo since the closing of the La France Winery, the tradition of wine making for family consumption thrives in Bernalillo.  May that tradition continue for many more generations of wine makers!

Based on the research of Justin B.Rinaldi and Henry Street