Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
PORTALES — You can relax this weekend with a glass of wine and a plate of cheese while listening to some live music and celebrating two big industries in New Mexico.
The New Mexico Wine Growers Association has been working to promote the wine industry in New Mexico for the last 28 years and recently set sights on expanding to Portales and the surrounding area by hosting the first Queso Vino festival at Eastern New Mexico University.
“We want to highlight the New Mexico wine industry and show people what it has, as well as to bring something to Portales that it’s never had before,” said Chelsea Canon, assistant director of the New Mexico Wine Growers Association. “We also want to showcase the cheese industry that you have locally.”
The New Mexico Wine Growers Association has teamed up with local vineyards and dairies to put on the event.
“We were participating at an event down in Ruidoso and while staying involved with the New Mexico Wine Growers Association we realized events like these were happening all over the state,” said Scott Knauer, the marketing director for Enchantment Vineyards. “Now that we've become part of the scene out here in west Texas and eastern New Mexico we wanted to do something to draw attention from around the state.”
Knauer said many conversations about getting an event in eastern New Mexico stemmed from meetings at Enchantment. He believes that while it’s good to promote fairly new crops to the area like grapes, it’s also important to get other forms of agriculture involved like the dairies.
In addition to wine and cheese samples, there will be arts and crafts booths and food vendors attending the event. There will be live music performed by Hayden Spears and other artists, as well as yard games for guests to play such as giant Jenga.
The Queso Vino festival starts Friday with a reception dinner in the ENMU Ballroom from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., featuring dinner, dessert and live music. Tickets are $65 a person or $400 for a table of eight and must be purchased in advance.
Things pick up the following day with a picnic at the ENMU baseball field from noon to 5 p.m. Tickets will be $20 at the gate, $5 for underage guests or designated drivers and free for children 15 and under. Guests are encouraged to bring their own chairs and blankets.
Information: Call 505-859-0541 or go online to:
nmwine.com/queso-vino/
