(Press Personnel Picture by Jo Lutz)
David and Esperanza Gurule put for visitors at La Esperanza Vineyard and Winery on Saturday throughout their annual Art and Red wine Extravaganza.
Artisans and white wine lovers gathered among rows of grapevines Saturday for the 10th annual Art and Wine Extravaganza at La Esperanza Vineyard and Winery in Mimbres, where owners David and Esperanza Gurule poured reds, whites and their popular Born in Space rosé in the tasting room.The couple seldom got a break from the line that extended from the door to the counter for most of the day, but on one such rare break in the kitchen, David revealed that he and Esperanza were preparing to sell the 24-year-old vineyard and 13-year-old winery– and the 40-acre homestead with water and mineral rights that has actually remained in Esperanza’s family because 1906.
“I worked 33 years for the Feds, then I did this for 25 years. While we can both still walk, we want to travel around the world four or 5 times. We have timeshares all over the world,” David said in an I’m-not-joking voice. “We’re still doing marketing research, however next year we’re intending on selling. Well– we’re intending on putting it on the marketplace. We do not desire every Tom, Dick and Harry calling.”
“Regrettably, we’re getting too old to do this,” Esperanza lamented.She stated she will miss all the routine clients La Esperanza has cultivated over the years.Jacob Zamora is among those numerous returning clients. He stated his household concerns the vineyard several times a year.” I don’t really drink white wine,”he stated,”so I’m constantly the designated motorist.”Even so, he said, his favorite is the Born in Area rosé.That was likewise the typical choice of Leslie Ormand, the recently retired principal from Harrison Schmitt Elementary, who credits the Gurules with educating her about her school’s name, an astronaut from the previous town of Santa Rita, whose residents(including Esperanza )were said to be “born in space”– the area in the middle of what is now one of the largest open-pit copper mines worldwide. Technically, however, just Harrison Schmitt has also been in area. “I usually drink the Born in Space rosé, but today is my first day trying the chardonnay, and I truly like it,”Leslie said. “It’s so great to support local individuals, and it’s such a nice place.”Her spouse, Sean Ormand, CEO of First New Mexico Bank, was one of the few weekend visitors who currently understood of the Gurules’strategies to sell.”I believe he’s trying to find the best individual to purchase it, “he stated.”They put a great deal of their lives into this.
They do not want to just pass it off to somebody who’s not going to continue the small-business method to white wine in the valley.” “Whoever takes it over ought to keep this up, “First New Mexico board member Brett Kasten said of the Art and Red wine Extravaganza.Kasten volunteers by choosing grapes in the vineyard in exchange for meals.”They feed you real well, “he said.Those grapes originate from 4,000 plants,
consisting of chardonnay, golden muscat, pinot noir, merlot, shiraz, St. Vincent and numerous sturdy “mission grapes” brought here by Jesuit monks.Winemaking is a second career for Dave and Esperanza, who had lived and traveled many locations while David was an atomic engineer with the Department of Energy and Espie was a caregiver to
their kids. It was while they were living in Kansas City, Mo., that David established high cholesterol. He gave up beer and began making his own red wine from kits.Eventually, he and Esperanza wanted to grow the white wine grapes themselves, and asked Espie’s mom, Antonia, if they could plant vines on her acreage in Mimbres, which she had actually inherited from her daddy, Don Antonio DeLaO, for whom the roadway to La Esperanza Winery is called.”We were relaxing the dining-room table with my mother-in-law, “David recalled, “and we were submitting documents to get a tax ID number for the brand-new vineyard. I asked her, ‘Antonia, what are we going to name it?’She stated,’La Esperanza
,’over my better half’s objections. I informed her I didn’t argue with her mom.” Antonia died in 2004. In 2023, it’s possible that someone outside the family will own the vineyard she named for her only child, located on the road named for her daddy, for the very first time in more than 100 years.The Gurules state they will stay in New Mexico when they are not traveling.Jo Lutz may be reached at [e-mail safeguarded]