Last week, Lynn and I were in Santa Fe, New Mexico for a vacation. The scenery of Georgia O'Keefe's country (we visited her studio and Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu) was gorgeous, and went to numerous galleries and museums. We ate out at a number of fine restaurants, but usually had a Argentinian Malbec or Chilean Carmenere, for South American wines seemed to go well with the flavors of Southwestern American dishes. The only New Mexico wines we had were the Gruet Winery's sparkling wines. We found the Blanc de Noirs especially charming: pale pink-orange colored, with aromas and flavors of strawberry and watermelon, followed by a crisp, nicely fruited finish (18/20 points). It sells for around $30 a bottle in restaurants and for under $20 in supermarkets. I was curious about other New Mexico wines, but I talked with an art gallery owner who had worked at Sherry-Lehman in New York and at a winery in California. He said New Mexico wines range from "very good to simply awful."

My experience with finding Washington wines on restaurant lists was mixed. The Compound, one of the top restaurants on Canyon Road (the art gallery road), had an extensive international wine list that was devoid of Washington wines. It was a very upscale place and could easily have had Leonetti and Corliss on the list. One fine restaurant, though, was the 315 Restaurant and Wine Bar that had DeLille Cellars, L'Ecole No. 41, and a few others on the list. In a liquor store, I found a L'Ecole Perigee and a Spring Valley Uriah. So there is a Washington wine presence in Santa Fe, but one that indicates there is an awareness and marketing challenge for the state's wine industry in New Mexico as well as other parts of the country.