eNewMexican

Festival pouring back

Wine & Chile Fiesta returns as in-person event with more than 80 wineries

By Phaedra Haywood phaywood@sfnewmexican.com

Hundreds of well-heeled wine and chile aficionados — or at least fans — strolled the grassy grounds at Fort Marcy park Friday during the 30th annual Santa Fe Wine & Chile Fiesta. This year is the first time the event — normally held at the Santa Fe Opera — has been held at the city recreation complex. It was also the first time the event was celebrated in person since the pandemic began. COVID-19 forced the festivities online last year.

The atmosphere was celebratory as festival goers mingled beneath white tents sipping, swishing and sometimes spitting samples of wine from more than 80 wineries — as far away as France and as nearby as Belen.

About 50 local restaurants will participate in the event over Friday and Saturday, executive director Mary Hallahan said, offering bite-sized morsels of the delicacies that grace their menus.

Favorites on the tips of many tongues Friday included a whipped bone marrow with beef-bacon bourbon jam from

Market Steer Steakhouse in the Hotel St. Francis and a butterscotch pudding with salted caramel from Joseph’s Culinary Pub.

Kimnath “Chef Nath” Gyallay-Pap and her son Sothearos Gyallay of Nath’s Inspired Khmer Cuisine — which opened in the Chomp Food Hall in March — participated for the first time, serving Lok Lak, a Cambodian beef tenderloin flavored with turmeric, galangal, ginger and pineapple.

Palace Prime executive chef Rocky Durhamsaid he has an emotional attachment to the event, having taken part in every one since the first, 30 years ago when he was repping the Zia Diner.

He said he and his staff passed out about 850 pieces of The Palace’s muchtalked-about bison carpaccio Friday and were headed back downtown for a busy Saturday dinner shift.

“It’s great to be at Fort Marcy park,” he said. “I walked here from my restaurant.”

Bueno Foods was on-site roasting fresh New Mexico green chile while lively local band Manzanares performed at the event.

“It’s been a gorgeous day,” said Annalise Theisen, assistant wine maker at Jaramillo Vineyards, which she said grows about 90 percent of its own grapes on 10 acres in the middle Rio Grande valley.

“The weather is perfect and we’re getting a lot of people excited about New Mexico wine here.”

Hallahan organized the event for the first time this year after moving to Santa Fe in June from the East Coast, where she oversaw the Nantucket Wine and Food Festival.

She said the purpose of the fiesta — which spanned five days this week, including several days of seminars and demonstrations leading up to the grand tasting events on Friday and Saturday — is to promote and provide support and education for New Mexico restaurants, wineries and sommeliers.

Tickets for the all-inclusive fiesta were $175. Hallahan said about 1,200 people attended Friday, and the event is sold out Saturday with 1,500 tickets purchased. All told, she said, about 3,500 people attended at least a portion of the event and another 1,000 helped make it happen.

When it was held at the opera, Hallahan said, about 2,500 people attended the event in a single day.

Holding it in a larger space over two days at Fort Marcy allowed more people to enjoy a less crowded setting and pushed related commerce back into the downtown area, she said.

Masks were not required at the outdoor event, but attendees — about 50 percent of whom are from New Mexico, according to Hallahan — were required to show proof they were vaccinated or had tested negative for COVID-19 within the past 72 hours.

“The best part about this year,” she said, “is being able to have it.”

Between ticket sales, sponsorships and proceeds from silent auctions, Hallahan said she expected the event to gross about $1 million this year. She said much of the money goes toward putting on the fiesta, and the nonprofit donates a portion to local charities such as Cooking With Kids and the Garcia Street Club.

Chris Beelendorf, a restaurant general manager and sommelier from Scottsdale, Ariz., said he’s been hearing about the fiesta for years and was excited to attend for the first time.

“It’s been talked up more and more,” he said. “The reputation just builds and builds.”

So did it live up to the hype?

“One hundred percent, yes!” he said. “I would come back to see the city. I haven’t seen grass in so long.”

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2021-09-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-09-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://enewmexican.com/article/281496459433071

Santa Fe New Mexican