Winemaking

A small winery, built around a real vineyard.

Pajarito Farms is developing a small estate winery around the grapes grown on this property. The approach is practical: get the fruit right, pick it at the right moment, ferment it cleanly in small lots, and pay attention to the results.

There's history behind the practicality: the first wine in what is now the United States was made in New Mexico, pressed from Mission grapes planted along the Rio Grande by 1629. Flooding and Prohibition nearly erased that industry; its revival has been underway since the 1970s. Every lot we ferment is part of that continuation.

The farmhouse among young vine rows under a sunset sky, Sandia Mountains on the horizon — Home base, Sandias behind. Until a real winery gets built, the wine is made in the workshop and garage — mini-splits in for temperature control, cars out for room.

Fruit first

Wine quality is set in the vineyard months before crush. Most of our winemaking effort is actually farming effort.

Harvest timing

Picking decisions — acid, sugar, flavor, weather — matter more than any cellar trick. We pick at first light, block by block.

Small lots, kept separate

Eight varieties means eight (or more) small fermentations. Keeping lots separate is how we learn what each block actually gives.

Controlled fermentation

Temperature control and clean process — not because it's romantic, but because it's how you find out what the fruit really tastes like.

Iterate honestly

Every lot is an experiment with a result. What worked gets repeated. What didn't gets changed. No mythology required.

Built around the vineyard

The production process is being designed around what this site grows — not the other way around.

Harvest bins full of dark grapes in the truck bed — First fruit, first bins — picked cool and kept in small lots.

First crush: 2026

This year's harvest feeds our very first crush — modern equipment, careful lots, and a lot of note-taking. It's the beginning of the estate program, and everyone who picks with us is part of it.

Read about Harvest 2026 →

Status

Wine is coming.

The vineyard is growing into commercial production, and the first lots are on their way through the workshop — the cellar comes later. When there's wine worth releasing, the mailing list hears it first.