Thousands of thirsty wine lovers will converge on Balloon Fiesta Park in Albuquerque and Doña Ana County Fairgrounds in Las Cruces on Memorial Day Weekend for the

New Mexico Wine Festival.

The festival, which has been held concurrently in the two cities for two decades, will bring together vintages from several local mom-and-pop wine distributors in one place. Northern New Mexico vineyards will be showcased in Albuquerque, and southern ones in Las Cruces.

“Everybody’s been to California. Everyone knows West Coast wines,” says Chris Goblet, the executive director of New Mexico Wine, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the industry. “The new consumer is interested in what’s different and what they haven’t experienced. We just wait for people to come back around and rediscover us every 100 years.”

Goblet says that New Mexico wine culture is nearly 400 years old, and at one point, the state was one of the top five wine producers in the country.

Interestingly, though, the state does not specialize in one varietal; it’s able to produce wines of many types. Goblet says the event drew just a couple of hundred people when it first started, but now he expects 24,000 visitors over the three days and two locations.

“We’re rustic Old World wine meets New World wine,” Goblet says. “European immigrants brought the vines in 1629. European immigrants brought the vines back again in the 1980s when Gruet started planting vineyards in Truth or Consequences. The Italians came to Deming and planted vineyards.

“It really is the same story repeating itself: European roots coming in and establishing the New Mexico wine industry.”— Spencer Fordin

New Mexico Wine Festival

Noon to 6 p.m., Saturday, May 27, through Monday, May 29

$10 to $55

Balloon Fiesta Park, 9401 Balloon Museum Dr. NE, Albuquerque Doña Ana County Fairgrounds, 12125 Robert Larson Blvd., Las Cruces